Hahahaha. What’s the Left wing solution? Force all students to go to failing public schools and then chastise them for not treating the gang bangers more respectfully?
How dare parents strive to do better for themselves and the children. How dare parents move to better school districts where their children will get a better education. It’s not as if it should be the parent’s choice as to where they chose to live. The government should take care of everything for you.
How dare Arne Duncan, and Barack Obama, advocate for charter schools. DeVos is in favor of charter schools. All of these people must be deplorables.
Yep, take a bimbo who’s political experience is “has contributed substantially to a political campaign” and put her in charge of education. What an awesome idea. Republicans should be proud there are such fine people in their ranks.
DeVos was one of the most ardent critics of Trump on the republican side. She was right up there with Romney in the never trump camp. Just throwing that out there.
I almost wish she were incompetent. Like forget to show up at work on Monday incompetent. I think the government can survive 8 years without any cabinet members, I don’t think it will do very well with 8 years of cabinet members like this. But if you want to drown it in a bathtub, this is a good way to start. And I think that some Republicans want to do exactly this.
Once again, the argument that I am objecting to is that Republicans are putting party before country by not shooting down their President’s nomination for secretary of education. I do not object to any negative characterization of her. but why the fuck would a modern day Republican stick their neck out to object to someone like her?
I think we have been spoiled by Obama. He was notorious for appointing people based on competencies rather than political affiliation. Sure there were a few exceptions (Colin Powell’s son becoming the chairman of the FCC) but mostly he appointed people that were experts.
I understand the notion that we should persist in our opposition to Trump. And I agree that we should be attributing Trump’s foibles to “the Republicans” (the Republicans are arguing about the attendance at the inauguration; the Republicans are banning refugees and immigrants from 7 muslim nations; the Republicans are silencing Democrats from quoting Coretta Scott King because it makes them look bad; Republicans are damaging our relationship with Australia, the EU, NATO, our asian allies and pretty much the entire fucking world; etc.). We can even say that the Republicans have put a spoiled socialite in the cabinet. But it seems silly to say the Republicans have put party before country by confirming their own goddam nominee.
The republicans put party before country in every fucking thing they do, so I guess it is redundant to point out that this confirmation was one more in a long list of things that the republican party has done to prop itself up at the expense of the people that actually have to live here.
So, you are correct in that it is not a useful criticism to point out that the republicans are doing what they always do, as if it were new and unexpected. But there is still value in pointing it out each and every time that they show that their agenda is not one in which the people of this country come out ahead.
Education is one of the few things she demonstrably DOES care about; much of her adult life has been dedicated to attacking public schools. She has never held a regular job, so far as I can tell; most of her time has been spent funneling money into Republican politicians and religious extremists, much of it specifically to buy reductions in public school funding and more funding for “charter schools.”
It is hardly surprising DeVos was initially an opponent of Trump; Trump is not a Christian, and DeVos is a fanatic, so they’re not natural allies. But her mission in life to get rid of public education requires some compromises, which is why she paid Trump for the appointment.
What i love about this comment is that the article includes a quote from Delores Umbridge (from Harry Potter) and yet Quartz read it and then went, hmmm, I need to make sure everyone knows that this is marked as satire. Becasue we all know Umbridge would never say that, right?
Not everyone follows links. And will that link still work in 5 years’ time? Possibly not. So someone reading it then might see that it was a link to the Huffington Post - not normally a satire site - and conclude that it was genuine.
Perhaps. Or it could be because she is actively trying to undermine part of the core support for the democratic party (teachers unions). I personally don’t have a problem with teachers unions 99% of the time but it shouldn’t be surprising that republicans support someone who wants to kill teachers unions.
I don’t agree with republicans on almost anything but I don’t think they put party before country on almost everything they do. I think they do so when they threaten to default on the national debt unless they get something for it. I think they put party before country when they actively cheer for a failed presidency so that they can score political points. But reasonable people can disagree about the role of government in education and shit like that.
Do you also think that Republicans are putting party before country by confirming Betsy DeVos?
The conclusion that people will suffer (particularly those in failing inner city school that will be the subject of her experiments) is an opinion I share with you but its still an opinion.
