Exucation Sec

She's not a teacher, professor, principal or even a coach.  She's a billionaire lobbyist.

In keeping with her theme during her confirmation hearing interviews.........

I don't know.

De Vos is an idiot. I listened to her entire hearing and she knows next to nothing about education. I was sure a few Republicans would step up and vote no based on her lack of experience and demonstrated lack of knowledge. Depressed to find I'm wrong. Guess I'm wrong about a lot this year! I clearly overestimate our population and our politicians.

School choice? Meh. Depends on how it is executed. Denver Public Schools have done a great job opening specialty schools under the banner of charter schools, however, they are held accountable to the same standards as the neighborhood schools, and in most cases are magnet schools for exceptional children. If executed well, charter schools can be effective.

Unfortunately, I'm not convinced that De Vos understands enough about education to execute her idea of school choice successfully. She refuses to commit to accountability for charter and private schools, and I don't agree with giving federal and state dollars to schools that are not held accountable.

I also feel that school choice is a luxury we can discuss in urban areas, but a useless concept for rural areas. I lived in a ski town with 1000 year round residents for years - your kid went to the public school, or you home-schooled. Vouchers and school choice won't help failing rural public schools, and those are the schools that need a successful public school system the most. Unfortunately, the person we just confirmed is woefully unprepared to tackle the problems with our public schools. 

I've got one kid at public school, and I pay $15,000 per year to send my other kid to a private Montessori school because it's a better fit for him. I'm the poster child for people who would benefit financially from vouchers or "school choice". But I don't think it will benefit our educational system as a whole, and I suspect that if vouchers were implemented, my kid's private school tuition would simply increase accordingly. Why wouldn't it? So how does that help the low income people Jindal is discussing in his article? They won't be able to afford a private school any more than they can now.

I'm giving you this one for sure, Stacers.....why even have confirmation hearings if the nominee proves they're incompetent to fill the job and they still get it???

It's pretty obvious how she wants to manage the budget - i.e. funneling public dollars to private (Christian) schools.

And how would you feel if she instead wanted more schools teaching Islam?  Not that this administration would've confirmed such a person.

Yeah if you want to be in this Cabinet for sure.

FWIW I have read nothing about her from that site (nor have I read that site in awhile anyhow).  Go read her Wikipedia page for starters -- a page she herself could modify if she disagreed with any of it.

Rog - if she is for vouchers then that's all you need to know.  Vouchers allow people who are paying for their kids education at a private school to lower their tax bill to fund public schools.  That in itself funnels money from public schools to private schools.  You don't need a source, it's just math.

This is all I know about education......if you don't find a way to rebuild the schools in our inner cities, this country is doomed.  I don't think vouchers is the way to do that, but there are certainly bigger fish to fry. 

My problem with Devos, besides the fact that she seems to know nothing of the current education system (so how the hell would she know what's broke), is that she is a product of extreme wealth and privilege when it comes to education....that's not the experience of the great majority of Americans who depend on public education.

You can say that education is not the purpose of govt.........and that's fine.  But paying for the uneducated is (because you WILL pay for them one way or another).....pick your poison.

So do I......any idea how a single mother of 3 making $15,000 a year gets that done?   Again....the problem with education in this country isn't a public/private school issue, it's a poverty issue.  Period.

I don't get how vouchers will make it possible for poor kids to go to private school. Take my kid's private school... They have a building that fits about 45 kids. They charge $15,000 per year and pride themselves on small classes and a tight community. This is not a school that wants to grow - they turn kids away each year. All of the sudden, I get a voucher for $5,000 and so does everyone else in town. They don't have room for any extra kids. So they raise tuition to $20,000 per year and have the same enrollment. So, the same privileged kids go to the private school, and meanwhile, the public school just got a lot less funds.

I read the article you posted. And the guy is really adamant about how Betsy De Vos wants everyone to have a quality education. Yay!! But nowhere in the article does he explain how school choice is actually going to help the poor kids. Taking funds from their schools isn't going to do it.

Absolutely right....getting a voucher will not allow your kid to go to private school.....there is still tuition.  Vouchers are for people who can already afford private school.....any other explanation is a lie.

We MUST resurrect the public schools in our inner cities.  Every change we would all like to see starts with education.  Education starts with good schools.  Good schools leads to pride in neighborhoods, pride in neighborhoods leads to good property values.  Good property values leads to companies willing to invest in those neighborhoods.  That investment leads to decent jobs for the newly educated.  Decent jobs leads to more stable families and props up those neighborhoods even further.  THIS has been the story of the middle class since this country reached it's heyday.

Make America Great Again?  I agree.  Don't send me some rich gal who doesn't know chit about what it takes to make great neighborhoods and great schools.  She never had to build chit and, judging from the answers she gave during her confirmation hearing, doesn't have a clue how to.  This is a bad appointment....from either side of the isle. Money won.....period.

I could not agree more.  I'll make a socialist out of you yet :P

Betcha I will never see a cash voucher or a tax break for *not* having kids. :P

really? that actually doesn't seem that expensive

Something has to change.  I'm not sure if its vouchers, scholarship tax credits, or what.  What we are doing now is not working.