Betsy DeVos Confirmed as Education Secretary (opens in new tab)

(nytimes.com)

36 pointsdzlobin9y ago28 comments

28 comments

Well, education as a public good had a nice run. Not that it has been in particularly good shape in this country, but we have blueprints from other countries on how to improve it.

Instead we have a completely inexperienced person in control of $60bil+ because she paid off Congress. Seems par for the course these days.

ComradeTaco9y ago

Fortunately, most public school policy funding occurs at the state and local levels as compared to the federal level.

DeVos is and remains exceedingly unqualified for the position. She's literally never been taught or been taught in a public school in the entirety of her life. Her B.S. is in poly sci.

Her brother founded what was once known as Blackwater, the same Blackwater that murdered civilians in Iraq. Her husband is heir to the Amway fortune, a name quite prominent in the multi-level marketing community. They also donated 200 million USD to Republican campaigns and causes.

Absolutely absurd.

dragonwriter9y ago

> Fortunately, most public school policy is determined at the state and local levels as compared to the federal level.

Quite a lot of it is influenced by incentives and conditions attached to federal funds, both those explicit in law and those resulting from the Department of Education's particular choices in applying the law.

DeVos will control the latter and (presumably, via influence within the Administration and controlling the DoE's interactions with Congress) substantially influence the former.

1 more reply

danielvf9y ago

Source on paying off congress?

swang9y ago

https://twitter.com/xdelmar59/status/829026587437780992

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/trumps-educat...

ethanpil9y ago

I think the public school system in this country is terrible. Personally excited to see some radical changes and ready to give this a chance.

Too much bureaucracy, institutionalization, unionization and inertia going on. Extremely strange and inconsistent funding/taxation patterns and complete lack of oversight or accountability has been the norm for 30+ years.

Magicstatic9y ago

As with most events that have occurred since Trump took the presidency, I am concerned, but optimistic. She has my full support, I hope she makes great changes to a system that desperately needs it.

ComradeTaco9y ago

Is there anything that she has accomplished or done in her life that indicates that she will improve things? She had a lot of trouble answering absurdly basic questions during her confirmation hearing.

Flammy9y ago

So there was some press this morning on the democratic filibuster... It is not clear to me why it didn't last longer. Can anyone shed some light?

vanattab9y ago

The Democrats removed the 60 vote requirement to break all filibusters for all appointments excluding SCOTUS appointments. It is turning around to bite them in the butt.

bb889y ago

Not sure about that. At some point government has to work in spite of a reluctant congress. The rules should be about making governance better, not just helping our side to win the battle.

1 more reply

dcre9y ago

"Back in 2013, then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid changed the Senate’s filibuster rules so presidential Cabinet nominees only required 51 votes, rather than 60, to be confirmed."

http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/1/17/14251600/tr...

ikeyany9y ago

> Republicans warned that it would not only tear apart cross-party relationships in the Senate, but it will come back to haunt Democrats if they return to the minority. "You will no doubt come to regret this, and you may regret it a lot sooner than you think," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., warned Democrats.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/11/21/harry...

ComradeTaco9y ago

Tragically, the Democrats believed that the Republicans would nominate people who were at least tangentially qualified for the position. Took 'em only one election to screw it up.

1wheel9y ago

There's no longer a filibuster for cabinet nominees:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/dec/4/donald-trumps...

jkimmel9y ago

Harry Reed reduced the threshold for confirming non-Supreme Court nominees to a simple majority, preventing a filibuster.

The Senate was locked 50-50, in which case the Vice President becomes the deciding vote.

compuguy9y ago

It wasn't a filibuster. The Senate got rid of that for everything except Supreme Court nominations.

swang9y ago

It's good to be rich. Donate to a whole bunch of Senators, win a job despite having no qualifications for that role.

jrnichols9y ago

I've also noticed that most of my Facebook friends quickly forget that the guy their hero Obama appointed did a terrible job and the teachers unions demanded he resign, which he later did.

They won't even give DeVos a chance, and most of them, it's because Obama didn't pick her.

joshmn9y ago

Bad news for grizzly bears across America.

kapauldo9y ago

Let us pray.

mark_sz9y ago

devOS?

singularity20019y ago

Good humor seems to be counterproductive to the majority

shenanigoat9y ago

Succinct and accurate.

maverick_iceman9y ago

Glad to see this happening. The federal government needs to completely get out of education. A good first step would be to dismantle the Department of Education.

xemoka9y ago

Further inequality between states in the union will only continue to benefit the current ruling bodies, unless the states can come up with some way to shelter their populations (shrink the federal government someway/how). Unfortunately, not all the states see it yet.

Eventually it will come to the point where some of them will question the union at all—as an outsider I look forward to the independent states movements gaining stronger footholds.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

28 comments

llamataboot9y ago

Well, education as a public good had a nice run. Not that it has been in particularly good shape in this country, but we have blueprints from other countries on how to improve it.

Instead we have a completely inexperienced person in control of $60bil+ because she paid off Congress. Seems par for the course these days.

ComradeTaco9y ago

Fortunately, most public school policy funding occurs at the state and local levels as compared to the federal level.

DeVos is and remains exceedingly unqualified for the position. She's literally never been taught or been taught in a public school in the entirety of her life. Her B.S. is in poly sci.

Absolutely absurd.

dragonwriter9y ago

> Fortunately, most public school policy is determined at the state and local levels as compared to the federal level.

DeVos will control the latter and (presumably, via influence within the Administration and controlling the DoE's interactions with Congress) substantially influence the former.

1 more reply

danielvf9y ago

Source on paying off congress?

swang9y ago

https://twitter.com/xdelmar59/status/829026587437780992

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/trumps-educat...

ethanpil9y ago

I think the public school system in this country is terrible. Personally excited to see some radical changes and ready to give this a chance.

Magicstatic9y ago

As with most events that have occurred since Trump took the presidency, I am concerned, but optimistic. She has my full support, I hope she makes great changes to a system that desperately needs it.

ComradeTaco9y ago

Flammy9y ago

So there was some press this morning on the democratic filibuster... It is not clear to me why it didn't last longer. Can anyone shed some light?

vanattab9y ago

The Democrats removed the 60 vote requirement to break all filibusters for all appointments excluding SCOTUS appointments. It is turning around to bite them in the butt.

bb889y ago

Not sure about that. At some point government has to work in spite of a reluctant congress. The rules should be about making governance better, not just helping our side to win the battle.

1 more reply

dcre9y ago

"Back in 2013, then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid changed the Senate’s filibuster rules so presidential Cabinet nominees only required 51 votes, rather than 60, to be confirmed."

http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/1/17/14251600/tr...

ikeyany9y ago

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/11/21/harry...

ComradeTaco9y ago

Tragically, the Democrats believed that the Republicans would nominate people who were at least tangentially qualified for the position. Took 'em only one election to screw it up.

1wheel9y ago

There's no longer a filibuster for cabinet nominees:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/dec/4/donald-trumps...

jkimmel9y ago

Harry Reed reduced the threshold for confirming non-Supreme Court nominees to a simple majority, preventing a filibuster.

The Senate was locked 50-50, in which case the Vice President becomes the deciding vote.

compuguy9y ago

It wasn't a filibuster. The Senate got rid of that for everything except Supreme Court nominations.

swang9y ago

It's good to be rich. Donate to a whole bunch of Senators, win a job despite having no qualifications for that role.

jrnichols9y ago

I've also noticed that most of my Facebook friends quickly forget that the guy their hero Obama appointed did a terrible job and the teachers unions demanded he resign, which he later did.

They won't even give DeVos a chance, and most of them, it's because Obama didn't pick her.

joshmn9y ago

Bad news for grizzly bears across America.

kapauldo9y ago

Let us pray.

mark_sz9y ago

devOS?

singularity20019y ago

Good humor seems to be counterproductive to the majority

shenanigoat9y ago

Succinct and accurate.

maverick_iceman9y ago

Glad to see this happening. The federal government needs to completely get out of education. A good first step would be to dismantle the Department of Education.

xemoka9y ago

Eventually it will come to the point where some of them will question the union at all—as an outsider I look forward to the independent states movements gaining stronger footholds.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse