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You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / No Matter How Cynical You Get… Betsy DeVos Edition

No Matter How Cynical You Get… Betsy DeVos Edition

by Anne Laurie|  March 1, 20178:23 am| 34 Comments

This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Education, Post-racial America, Republican Venality, Trump Crime Cartel

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Glenn McCoy: I drew Betsy DeVos as Ruby Bridges, you can't possibly be more insensitive or tone-deaf than that

Betsy DeVos: hold my beer

— Kelsey D. Atherton (@AthertonKD) February 28, 2017

Per Politico:

President Donald Trump’s efforts to bolster relations with historically black colleges erupted in controversy Tuesday after Education Secretary Betsy DeVos released a statement equating the history of the schools — founded during an era of racial segregation — to “school choice” policies.

“HBCUs are real pioneers when it comes to school choice,” DeVos said in the statement, released Monday night in advance of Trump’s planned signing of an executive order giving the schools more clout. “They are living proof that when more options are provided to students, they are afforded greater access and greater quality. Their success has shown that more options help students flourish.”

The executive order, which Trump signed Tuesday afternoon, was supposed be an easy bit of outreach on the final day of Black History Month to the black community that soundly rejected Trump on Election Day. It moves a federal initiative focused on the colleges from the Education Department to the White House — a move the schools had asked for, hoping it will give them better access to the president.

But the goodwill was quickly overshadowed by DeVos’ statement, which came on the heels of a Monday meeting between Trump and presidents of the schools that left some dissatisfied. Some experts on historically black institutions panned the statement as ignorant, while others said she was inadvertently praising segregation…

“Inadvertently”. Of course.

That's a helluva thing to say about schools that in many cases were founded in response to racial apartheid https://t.co/Sk50y9FaUC

— Mazel Tov Cocktail (@AdamSerwer) February 28, 2017

To paint historically black colleges as pioneers of "school choice" is like saying the Montgomery bus boycott was a transportation startup. https://t.co/DRic6txMU1

— Farhad Manjoo (@fmanjoo) February 28, 2017

… DeVos also seemed to reject one thing the schools are really hoping to get from the administration: More money. One school president told POLITICO that the colleges had asked the White House to back a $25 billion investment in infrastructure improvements on their campuses in their meeting with DeVos Monday. They also advocated for year-round Pell grants and to maintain or increase funding that goes to schools that serve low-income students.

“Rather than focus solely on funding, we must be willing to make the tangible, structural reforms that will allow students to reach their full potential,” DeVos said in her statement…

I wonder what, specifically, DeVos means when she says HBCUs need "structural reforms." https://t.co/SDUeh64QsX

— Jamelle Bouie (@jbouie) February 28, 2017

This is going to be be an effort to gut public schools & encourage resegregation. I've met conservative Christians who swear by it. https://t.co/7HRf5lEbxn

— Mikki Kendall (@Karnythia) February 28, 2017

@clairecmc Will Secretary of Labor now say that slavery was about workplace choice?

— Ted Perlmutter (@tedperl) February 28, 2017

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34Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    March 1, 2017 at 8:39 am

    HBCUs are real pioneers when it comes to school choice.

    Great, so they’ll get more money like your planning to give out to corporate-run schools.

    … DeVos also seemed to reject one thing the schools are really hoping to get from the administration: More money.

    Oh…

  2. 2.

    Paul in KY

    March 1, 2017 at 8:40 am

    I felt very bad for those college presidents to go up there & get condescended to like that. That simpering sleazebag DeVos infuriates me.

  3. 3.

    Paul in KY

    March 1, 2017 at 8:42 am

    @Baud: I’m guessing ‘tangible, structural’ reforms are putting white people in any position with a good salary & then running the institutions to point they go broke & have to close.

    Think I’m on to them?

  4. 4.

    Tokyokie

    March 1, 2017 at 8:45 am

    I think it’s entirely believable that DeVos inadvertently endorsed educational segregation. Because I think she really is that stupid. But I’m sure she has black friends who will reassure her that she has a good heart (and who are richly rewarded for providing such feedback).

  5. 5.

    msdc

    March 1, 2017 at 8:46 am

    Look, say what you will about HBCUs, but everyone in this administration agrees that the Jews were the real pioneers when it comes to neighborhood choice.

    Especially Bannon.

  6. 6.

    Paul in KY

    March 1, 2017 at 8:50 am

    @msdc: Pioneers in communal working conditions of the ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ variety too…

  7. 7.

    germy

    March 1, 2017 at 8:56 am

    Is she going to financially starve public schools (elementary, middle, high school)? Is that basically the plan?

    I know schools in blue states have vowed to fight, but if she cuts their $ is there really anything they can do?

  8. 8.

    Shalimar

    March 1, 2017 at 8:57 am

    @Tokyokie: Betsy DeVos’s black friends are the very best black friends: the kind who become big Amway distributors.

  9. 9.

    Roger Moore

    March 1, 2017 at 9:01 am

    @Tokyokie:

    I think it’s entirely believable that DeVos inadvertently endorsed educational segregation.

    Who says it’s inadvertent? For all the rhetoric about improving educational outcomes, vouchers and other “school choice” arguments have always been about resegregation. That’s been true since places like Little Rock tried to shut down their public schools in response to Brown v. Board of Education.

  10. 10.

    rikyrah

    March 1, 2017 at 9:04 am

    @Paul in KY:

    I felt very bad for those college presidents to go up there & get condescended to like that.

    Nobody told them to go. Have no sympathy for them.

  11. 11.

    rikyrah

    March 1, 2017 at 9:05 am

    @Roger Moore:

    Who says it’s inadvertent? For all the rhetoric about improving educational outcomes, vouchers and other “school choice” arguments have always been about resegregation. That’s been true since places like Little Rock tried to shut down their public schools in response to Brown v. Board of Education.

    ICAM.

    I never give these muthaphuckas the benefit of the doubt.

  12. 12.

    Shalimar

    March 1, 2017 at 9:07 am

    @Roger Moore: There are shoestring-budget private schools in most small Alabama black belt towns, so the white families with any money at all don’t have to send their kids to integrated public schools.

  13. 13.

    Dr. Ronnie James, D.O.

    March 1, 2017 at 9:12 am

    @Paul in KY: There’s an old saying in poker, “if you look around the table and can’t spot the mark, you are the mark.” This also applies to every single one of the civil rights leaders, union leaders etc doing these photo ops with Trump. The photo ops give him good PR politically; whatever potential benefit you think you’re getting by helping him, you should know by now his MO is to never pay back what he promises.

  14. 14.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    March 1, 2017 at 9:13 am

    @clairecmc Will Secretary of Labor now say that slavery was about workplace choice?

    “Fully secured life time employment” and abolition is “government excessive involvement in the market place and asset stripping”

  15. 15.

    Dr. Ronnie James, D.O.

    March 1, 2017 at 9:13 am

    “Ted Perlmutter @tedperl
    @clairecmc Will Secretary of Labor now say that slavery was about workplace choice?”

    No, but “sharecroppers were the early pioneers of right to work” doesnt seem out of possibility

  16. 16.

    Kay

    March 1, 2017 at 9:19 am

    The only thing anyone who actually cared about quality public education has to know about DeVos is this- Michigan public education got worse over her 30 years of lobbying work.

    She did not actually improve public education. It’s not all her fault! But Michigan has been following the Betsy DeVos plan to improve public education for 20 years and they did not show growth.

    That’s why people shouldn’t believe her when she talks. She likes the word “results”. There are no “results” in Michigan. In fact (arguably) she made public education worse in Michigan. They slipped in the rankings of states. They may have slipped in the state rankings because other states got better, though. But- no improvement. Her theory failed in Michigan.

  17. 17.

    mardam422

    March 1, 2017 at 9:20 am

    They are going to try to turn HBCUs into trade schools. Mark it.

  18. 18.

    geg6

    March 1, 2017 at 9:24 am

    @Paul in KY:

    Kind of like Wilmer’s wife did! Maybe they’ll hire her!

  19. 19.

    Tokyokie

    March 1, 2017 at 9:27 am

    @Roger Moore: Perhaps I should have said that I believe that she really is stupid enough to believe her own bullshit that the web of shitty whites-only (unless you play football) schools that sprung across the South after desegregation was based on parents wanting school choice for reasons other than abject bigotry. Because I really believe she is incredibly stupid and stupid in ways that are only possible for incredibly privileged white people to pursue without suffering consequences.

  20. 20.

    germy

    March 1, 2017 at 9:30 am

    No matter how cynical you get… there’s always more

    The head of an education reform group founded by Betsy DeVos testified Tuesday that he wanted to manhandle an uncooperative state official.

    Gary Naeyaert, executive director of the Great Lakes Education Project (GLEP), told the Senate Education Committee that he wanted to physically shake State School Reform Officer Natasha Baker in frustration, reported Eclactablog.

    “I had heard of the challenges and difficulty of doing a turnaround,” Naeyaert testified. “Like, we don’t have the qualified teachers ready to work. Second, we can’t do a charter because that would make it look like we were favoring charters over traditional schools. We can’t close them because there’s nowhere to go.”

    “This is — you know, I wanted to shake her, like I like to shake my wife when — every option in front of you is, you know, not possible?” Naeyaert continued, his voice cracking with emotion. “They’re all equally unattractive to you, like when I ask her where to go to dinner, she says anywhere. I say Steak-n-Shake, and she says, ‘Not Steak-n-Shake.’”

  21. 21.

    sigaba

    March 1, 2017 at 9:30 am

    @Dr. Ronnie James, D.O.: Sharecropping was the original Uber!

  22. 22.

    msdc

    March 1, 2017 at 9:36 am

    @germy: Jesus Christ. Nothing but abusers all the way down.

  23. 23.

    germy

    March 1, 2017 at 9:44 am

    @msdc: Goddammit, the man wants his steak and shake for dinner!!

  24. 24.

    Ohio Mom

    March 1, 2017 at 9:51 am

    @rikyrah: I don’t hold it against them for going once, at the beginning of Trump’s tenure. I can’t imagine they were at all surprised by what transpired, and now they can say they gave him a chance.

    But if they ever go back — that is head banging territory and worse. Though I suspect they are too smart to do that.

  25. 25.

    Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)

    March 1, 2017 at 10:02 am

    @Shalimar: And if they attend the public schools at all, they’re GONE well before high school. Particularly the girls. I lived this reality, but a strange thing happened with the ones that headed off to college afterwards…

  26. 26.

    hovercraft

    March 1, 2017 at 10:23 am

    @germy:

    you know, I wanted to shake her, like I like to shake my wife

    What’s scary is that he’s comfortable saying this in public. Not just a public space, he’ saying it on record in his testimony.

    he is telling the world that he wishes he could abuse this public official the way he abuses his wife.

  27. 27.

    Aleta

    March 1, 2017 at 10:24 am

    outreach on the final day of Black History Month to the black community that soundly rejected Trump on Election Day.

    It looked like psychopathic insult and revenge on the black community to me.

    He waits until the last few days of Black History month. Then, with two days notice, invites education leaders who refuse to support an opportunistic race baiting hate mongering white supremecist. He tells them their input on education policy is needed, and asks them to each give a statement or short speech at a formal meeting. As educators they feel a duty to do this.

    When they arrive, he forces them into a photo op without their advance agreement. The photo is staged to make it appear that they support him, and is released like a token on the last day of BHM, just before the insulting Devos policy statement.

    Then (for a reason that makes no sense) they are told the photo with the pres means now there is no time for most of their formal statements (even though his presence was not needed for the invited meeting). So their statements will not after all go into WH record, a major reason for them to have made the trip.

    And anyway, the Devos statement was obviously written before the fake policy-input meeting was to take place. The only way he has of defeating people who are intellectually and morally and spiritually superior to him is to use his power to deceive and then humiliate.

  28. 28.

    aimai

    March 1, 2017 at 10:24 am

    @rikyrah: Yup. You try to make a deal with the devil and you are likely to get burned.

  29. 29.

    Aleta

    March 1, 2017 at 10:26 am

    Lost my comment … can it be retrieved? Thanks.

  30. 30.

    Paul in KY

    March 1, 2017 at 10:34 am

    @rikyrah: They were trying to get some money for their institutions. You can’t blame them for trying. They probably knew what was going to happen.

  31. 31.

    Paul in KY

    March 1, 2017 at 10:36 am

    @geg6: They probably will…

  32. 32.

    Tenar Arha

    March 1, 2017 at 10:45 am

    @rikyrah: I’ve read they were only going to meet with DeVos then got roped into the Presidential photo op. (But not sure where I read that).

    Here’s Medium post by Dillard President Kimbrough which I found via this article.

    But it seems clear that anyone in a group which likely will be targeted by this administration should think about what to do if they
    1. Take a meeting where the agenda changes suddenly
    2. Get roped into a photo op
    Because it seems clear that Trump will use all optics to manufacture consent & even complicity.

    (I’m imagining Anne Frank Center or ADL talking to the administration about the weekly bomb threats. “Suddenly Trump” & boom photos taken & boom “look we made up” stories).

  33. 33.

    The Moar You Know

    March 1, 2017 at 10:51 am

    This is going to be be an effort to gut public schools & encourage resegregation.

    Has been for years, they call ’em “charter schools”. They can claim anything they want but the results are the same: after a few years, the student bodies don’t look anything like the neighborhoods they’re in, no special ed kids, nothing but happy white (and in CA, Asian as well, because they boost scores) faces.

    Betsy’s just taking it to the next level, but the real damage has already been done. Starting for real under Bush, but a fair amount of it under Obama, who was no teacher’s friend.

  34. 34.

    J R in WV

    March 1, 2017 at 11:46 am

    @germy:

    “This is — you know, I wanted to shake her, like I like to shake my wife when — every option in front of you is, you know, not possible?” Naeyaert continued, his voice cracking with emotion. “They’re all equally unattractive to you, like when I ask her where to go to dinner, she says anywhere. I say Steak-n-Shake, and she says, ‘Not Steak-n-Shake.’”

    So, Naeyaert basically pled guilty to domestic violence right there in public, huh?
    Pretty stupid, that is.

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