Betsy DeVos, Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Education, performed terribly at her confirmation hearings. She was poorly prepared, sometimes giving rambling answers without responding to the question, other times giving answers so wrong, it’s clear she has made no serious attempt to learn about testing, curriculum or federal education law. And now it turns out, she plagiarized passages in her written responses to questions given to her by senators.
DeVos has few of the qualifications you’d expect of someone who wants to be in charge of education at the federal level. She earned her wealth the old fashioned way; she inherited it and married into it. She bought her way into Republican Party prominence by giving all kinds of money to candidates who supported her privatization/”education reform” agenda. She’s never worked in a public school. She didn’t attend public school and neither did her children. The only educational subjects she appears to know, or care, anything about are the use of tax dollars to pay for private school tuition and the reasons why charter schools are inherently better than “government” schools.
That’s not a good start. But DeVos could have shown herself to be a serious individual by studying up on the subject matter before being grilled by senators, just like any student is expected to study before taking a test. But she didn’t bother. Her implicit attitude was, “I’m white, I’m rich, I gave millions of dollars to the party. What else do you need to know?”
The person who hopes to preside over education in this country plagiarized on her take-home essay, then flunked her oral exam. For most people, that would earn them public embarrassment and a failing grade. For her, it’s still probable it will earn her a corner office in the Department of Education Building in Washington, D.C.
This article appears in Jan 26 – Feb 1, 2017.
Plagiarized. Does the name Joe Biden come to mind?
@cw13: touché!
Biden apparently plagiarized so of course it’s fine for Besty DeVos to do so as well.
Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.
You can quote me on that.
I don’t think that is why he pointed it out at all. It is aboutvthe authors credibility. It is constantly reviewed.
They want her to fail and public education as well, then they can privatize edcation. Too bad money is more important…
DeVos, an Anti-Public Education, Non-Educator, with Questionable Connection to Charter Schools has been Confirmed by the Senate of the United States:
WASHINGTON (AP): Feb 7, 1:07 PM EST: “….The Senate on Tuesday confirmed school choice advocate Betsy DeVos as Education secretary by the narrowest of margins, with “Vice President” Mike Pence breaking a 50-50 tie in a historic vote. Two Republicans joined Democrats in the unsuccessful effort to derail the nomination of the wealthy Republican donor. The Senate historian said Pence’s vote was the first by a “vice president” to break a tie on a Cabinet nomination. …” My quotation marks.
Jeff (the) Flake Voted for her Confirmation!!
Let us NOT forget his unstinting support for this Mentally Unstable “President” in the next Election. The Flake should NOT be re-elected!!
That’s a win for parents and children Education will improve!
But those are the kind of people the Republicans want heading up the agencies. Knowing they will destroy them, not accomplish anything good. We now have an administration that is truly working to trash America, it news media and revoke many safety laws that protect us from the rich. But since billionaires now control us under Trump, they will have the green light to be as corrupt as they want, as Trump as done