
Betsy DeVos Confirmed as Education Secretary - dzlobin
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/07/us/politics/betsy-devos-education-secretary-confirmed.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
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llamataboot
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.

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ComradeTaco
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.

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dragonwriter
> 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.

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ComradeTaco
I apologize, I should have said funding mechanisms{[1]. Policy is heavily
influenced at the federal level.

[1][https://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/fed/10facts/edlite-
chart....](https://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/fed/10facts/edlite-chart.html#2)

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ethanpil
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.

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Magicstatic
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.

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ComradeTaco
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.

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Flammy
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?

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dcre
"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...](http://www.vox.com/policy-and-
politics/2017/1/17/14251600/trump-cabinet-weeds)

~~~
ikeyany
> 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...](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/11/21/harry-
reid-nuclear-senate/3662445/)

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

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jrnichols
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.

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joshmn
Bad news for grizzly bears across America.

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kapauldo
Let us pray.

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mark_sz
devOS?

~~~
singularity2001
Good humor seems to be counterproductive to the majority

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shenanigoat
Succinct and accurate.

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maverick_iceman
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.

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xemoka
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.

