DeVos Vote in Senate as Early as Friday, February 3, 2017
From the US Senate Democrats website, dated February 01, 2017:
Senator McConnell filed cloture on the nomination of Elisabeth DeVos to be Secretary of Education. Under the rules, tomorrow – Thursday – will be an intervening day. The cloture motion on the DeVos nomination will ripen as early as 1 hour after the Senate convenes on Friday, February 3. If cloture is invoked, there will then be up to 30 hours of post-cloture debate before a vote on confirmation.
So, if the DeVos vote is sped through the Senate as quickly as is possible, then the vote will occur on Friday, February 03, 2017. The vote could also occur as late as Wednesday, February 08, 2017. However, given the Republican majority in the Senate coupled by the Republican push to get DeVos confirmed before any more Republican doubt is allowed to ripen and any more Republican votes lost, it seems unlikely that the DeVos vote will occur any later than Monday, February 06, 2017, or Tuesday, February 07, 2017.
As I write this, I just so happen to be watching All About Eve (1950). Just heard Bette Davis (“Margo Channing”) say her famous line, “Fasten your seat belts. It’s going to be a bumpy night.”
Indeed.
Betsy DeVos, looking as though she is Googling “federal education law” on the sly.
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Released July 2016– Book Three:
School Choice: The End of Public Education?
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Schneider is a southern Louisiana native, career teacher, trained researcher, and author of both A Chronicle of Echoes: Who’s Who In the Implosion of American Public Education and Common Core Dilemma: Who Owns Our Schools?.
deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog 
DEVOS SPEAKS: at her SXSW speech last year Betsy DeVos lays out her plan for the “education industry”. Her opening was cringeworthy, introducing herself as “the 1%”.
Her plan includes ending seniority and tenure as we know it, firing more teachers and going to an “open system” education “marketplace” of “providers” including charter schools, online schools, virtual schools and expanding technologies such as Khan Academy and cloud-based learning.
She said schools should compete for enrollment or they need to go away.
She calls out Obama’s hypocrisy for sending his kids to private schools (even as she did the same?).
She played a video of her 4 month old grandkids touching an iPad as proof that technology is changing education. Huh?
She acknowledges Cory Booker, Diane Feinstein and Andrew Cuomo as Democrats willing to buck their parties for school choice, to side with Jeb Bush, Bobby Jindal and other Republicans.
Her explanation for intractable problems in “failing schools” was…teacher unions. She claims they intimidate Democrats into supporting the status quo.
She didn’t disclose that she and her husband have supported anti-union PACs. 55 min total.
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
Judging from her many randomly idiotic statements, her grammatically-challenged tweets, and of course her disgraceful performance at her Senate confirmation hearing where she demonstrated a lack of understanding of the basic distinction between proficiency vs. growth measurement, she seems like the perfect Trumpian nominee for leadership. Then, her pro-venture-capitalist policies are icing on the cake.
Seriously, let us hope that the flood of calls and letters from concerned citizens and educators to lawmakers will result in a rare demonstration of some bi-partisan back-bone and common sense.
I love that line: “before any more Republican doubt is allowed to ripen.” I have a feeling that the next weeks, months and years will see much Republican fear, anxiety and panic come to a ripe fruition.
Dear Senator Fischer,
Please vote No on the nomination of Mrs. Betsy DeVos for US Secretary of Education. Her unwillingness to hold charter schools and those accepting vouchers to the same standards as traditional public schools disqualifies her. And, EdWeek (2/2/17) reported that she claimed very high graduation rates for cyber charters by “using graduation rates significantly higher than those used for state and federal accountability purposes.” http://tinyurl.com/jtndc5z . That rate only included continuously enrolled students since 9th grade and excluded drop-outs and transfers from the base denominator (Note: the federal ACGR rate allows transfers to be removed).
That’s a double standard. Cheating. As a Wash., DC high school teacher, I exposed inflated graduation rates twice: 2002, 2006 (over 200 seniors ineligible to graduate at Wilson HS).
Student records in charter schools, schools taking vouchers, & traditional public schools must be frequently audited to prevent cheating.
In 2013, the CEO of DC’s largest charter school submitted redacted transcripts of three “successful” 2011 graduates of Friendship Collegiate Academy to the State Board of Educ. (http://tinyurl.com/p7k4bf4 pp. 40-42). On each, course required for graduation in the DC Municipal Regulations were not listed:
1) Two had not taken US History. The school’s website doesn’t list US History under graduation requirements.
2) DC requires two years of world history, all three only had taken one year;
3) credit values were inflated.
There’s still more. Since DCPS (the school system or LEA “of right” must accept students residing in DC, charter operators “encourage” difficult to teach students to “voluntarily” transfer to DCPS. Charter high schools have large 9th grade enrollments, transfer large numbers before their 10th grade test and still more before graduation. The graduating charter class of 2016 is illustrative:
Starting cohort in 9th grade: 2229
Tested in 10th grade: 1427 (-802)
Adjusted Cohort for Graduation: 1468 (-761)
Number of Graduates (&Graduation Rate): 1070 (72.9%)
Completion Rate (Graduates: 1070) / (Starting Cohort: 2229): 48.0%
Senator: These are numbers anyone can check. This is a national problem generated by uncapped and unplanned charter growth. Communities are being disrupted. There needs to regular audits of the student data that are used to collectively evaluate whole schools.
If they are not audited, they will be manipulated, because grades, promotion and graduation rates are “the coin of the realm,” subject to being debased.
PLEASE DO NOT APPROVE A CANDIDATE FOR US EDSEC WHO PRETENDS THESE THREATS TO INSTITUTIONAL INTEGRITY DON’T EXIST.
Sincerely,
Erich Martel