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Besty Devos splits Senate with 50/50 vote, VP Pence confirms nomation

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U

ultratruman

Banned
happened now on C-SPAN 2

WASHINGTON — The Senate confirmed Betsy DeVos on Tuesday as education secretary, approving the embattled nominee only with the help of a historic tiebreaking vote from Vice President Mike Pence.

The 51-to-50 vote elevates Ms. DeVos — a wealthy donor from Michigan who has devoted much of her life to expanding educational choice through charter schools and vouchers, but has limited experience with the public school system — to be steward of the nation's schools.

Two Republicans voted against Ms. DeVos's confirmation, a sign that some members of President Trump's party are willing to go against him, possibly foreshadowing difficulty on some of the president's more contentious legislative priorities.

It was the first time that a vice president has been summoned to the Capitol to break a tie on a cabinet nomination, according to the Senate historian. Taking the gavel as the vote deadlocked at 50-50, Mr. Pence, a former member of the House, declared his vote for Ms. DeVos before announcing that Mr. Trump's nominee for education secretary had been confirmed.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/07/us/politics/betsy-devos-education-secretary-confirmed.html

In Detroit, parents of school-age children have plenty of choices, thanks to the nation's largest urban network of charter schools.

What remains in short supply is quality.

In Brightmoor, the only high school left is Detroit Community Schools, a charter boasting more than a decade of abysmal test scores and, until recently, a superintendent who earned $130,000 a year despite a dearth of educational experience or credentials.

On the west side, another charter school, Hope Academy, has been serving the community around Grand River and Livernois for 20 years. Its test scores have been among the lowest in the state throughout those two decades; in 2013 the school ranked in the first percentile, the absolute bottom for academic performance. Two years later, its charter was renewed.

Or if you live downtown, you could try Woodward Academy, a charter that has limped along near the bottom of school achievement since 1998, while its operator has been allowed to expand into other communities.

For students enrolled in schools of choice — that is, schools in nearby districts who have opened their doors to children who live outside district boundaries — it's not much better. Kids who depend on Detroit's problematic public transit are too far away from the state's top-performing school districts — and most of those districts don't participate in the schools of choice program, anyway.

This deeply dysfunctional educational landscape — where failure is rewarded with opportunities for expansion and ”choice" means the opposite for tens of thousands of children — is no accident. It was created by an ideological lobby that has zealously championed free-market education reform for decades, with little regard for the outcome.

And at the center of that lobby is Betsy DeVos, the west Michigan advocate whose family has contributed millions of dollars to the cause of school choice and unregulated charter expansion throughout Michigan.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...ecretary-of-education/?utm_term=.181ce4e357f5
 
Duane Cunningham

Duane Cunningham

Member
67498900.jpg
 
C

Corky

Nine out of ten orphans can't tell the difference.
I mean she was kind enough to give all those donations, surely our lovely senators can only reciprocate the gesture, what else can they do!?!
 
R

RinsFury

Member
This is exactly why I expect nothing from Republicans goong forward. They are all nazi pieces of shit in my eyes, couldn't even spare one more person. Fuck everything.
 
N

Nelo Ice

Banned
So how much damage will she do?. Every day since 1/20/17 has been increasingly more depressing. And the next AG is going to shit on all us minorities.
 
legacyzero

legacyzero

Banned
Fuck your part lines. GOD I hate the fucking party system. All those people calling. Ignored for political agenda.
 
B

BriGuy

Member
It's on them now. Maybe things work out in some roundabout way and we have a good laugh about this sometime down the road. Or maybe the die for future generations of angry, ignorant, vote-against-my-own-self-interest Republicans has just been cast.
 
Kirye

Kirye

Member
And my daughter just started school. Wonderful.

Here's hoping that California defends public education as much as possible.
 
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