Elephants and Jackasses...

The president is under no legal obligation to release his tax returns, and federal law prohibits the public release of returns by the IRS. There is only a tradition of presidents and presidential candidates releasing their returns voluntarily. Again, in this case, the only people who care are Trump's opponents. No matter what is in his returns, his opponents will find fault with them. No matter what is in his returns, his supporters will defend him. In this case, releasing his returns doesn't help him at all. He won without releasing them as a candidate, so he has no reason to release them now as a sitting president. Trump is the most unconventional president in modern history, maybe ever. We should stop expecting him to follow convention and tradition.

 

Betsy DeVos confirmed as Secretary of Education in a 50-50 vote, with Pence breaking the tie. Votes like this are the reason I think it would behoove the Democrats to do everything they can to bring votes to the floor, even if they know they're going to lose them. It gives them ammo in 2018 and 2020 to use against Republican Reps and Senators when they can point to specific votes and say "this senator/rep voted to sell a cabinet position for donor money."

 

Can you elaborate? What is/was the super majority?

 

I used to think that my daughter could attend a public school like I did and get a decent enough education. Now that DeVos has been confirmed, I'm 98% sure I'm paying for private school now. The idea that someone so wholly unqualified to hold a position as important as Secretary of Education boggles my mind. I haven't even heard a good reason why she'd be a good candidate. She's never been a teacher or administrator, right? Did she even attend a public school? Is giving $200 million to the Republican Party all it takes to be qualified?

Meanwhile, mere weeks after Trump yells about voter fraud , House Republicans voted to disband the Election Assistance Commission. What exactly does this commission do? They just help keep voting systems secure. The EAC was put into place by George W. Bush after the amazingly smooth 2000 election.

 

In terms of education in this country, I really don't know what to believe in this day and age of 'information.' If you read the stats we spend the highest or almost the highest per pupil in terms of dollars and percent of GDP. When you couple those statistics (if you believe them) with our students ranking in scholastic achievement, which is generally nowhere near the top, it makes it hard to stomach.

With that said, I understand there is testing bias in terms of who is tested in each country which may skew the records, so I don't know what can actually be gleaned from this data set.

At the end of the day though, in a free society, what is wrong with having choices? If we, the taxpayers, are truly spending $16k (again, if you believe the 'information') per student, why don't we have any choice on how that money is spent?

 

You mean using tax dollars (vouchers) to fund religious charter schools?

This woman refused to commit to accountability rules for for-profit colleges, which is shitty enough until you find out that she is launching a for profit herself which she isn't going to divest from.

Refused to commit to LGBT rights being upheld in public schools

Supports teaching creationism (while against evolution) in public schools, supports climate change denial, family donates a ton of money to Focus on the Family another shitty fundementalist sinkhole.

Doesn't support Title 1, which is the federal program that covers a vast majority of low income and minority kids public education, nothing this woman supports or says is going to improve education in this country, it will only hurt it.

 

As soon as we make primary education for profit, there will be absolutely no incentive for the private sector to build good schools. If you were a CEO of an corporation, wouldn't your shareholders demand you cut as many corners as you could and hire teachers for as little as you could? And even if you were to build a good school and good teachers, the only kids going there are going to be the ones that can afford the exorbitant cost.

That isn't a future I want. Hopefully, by the time my girl gets to kindergarten, either I'll make enough to send her to a decent school, or even better, a new education secretary can unfuck everything.

 

I wonder if GW is sitting in his Texas mansion laughing his ass off and thinking to himself, and you guys thought it couldn't get worse....

 

Point taken but in theory in a free market economy, competition drives quality and cost. Shitty schools in a world full of choices won't be there long. In our current setting, there is no competition, you have to take what you get. And again, not sure if the statistics are believable but if they are correct, we aren't getting what we are paying for.

 

Why wouldn't shitty schools be around for long? If you want to hold education in the same light as every other industry, there are shitty low-quality products and services for every one of them for people who can't afford any better. Privatizing the education system is basically telling poor people they can't look to education to improve their situation.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong but hasn't the discussion centered on vouchers for everyone so they are given choice? Additionally, aren't charter schools held to state, county and local municipality requirements to include state assessment testing?

If that is the case then how are poor people being cut off here?

 

Because vouchers don't cover the entire cost of private schools while diverting funding for the public schools. The kids whose families can't afford to make up the difference end up with a worse education.

 

Well, there are people now that are zoned in to terrible schools with no choice other than bearing the full brunt of the cost of private school. I'm not sure which is worse?

 

With a public education system, if you don't like who's running it, you can vote for new school board members. You can't do shit with a private company, unless you have a bunch of money that can buy a controlling share of that company, change stuff and watch the value of your stock go down the toilet.

If you want an idea of how a privatized system will operate, look no further than private prisons. The most famous example I could find is Walnut Grove Correctional in Mississippi. Basically, the prisoners ran the asylum, the people who ran the place got rich, then they were arrested and convicted for bribing government officials. Yes, this is the worst case scenario. But, what would be the worst case scenario for a for profit school? The corporation running the school covering up for a sexual predator? Cover ups for teachers falsifying test results for more government money? High paying do nothing jobs for government favors? This shit is bad enough when it affects felons. How bad will you feel when this shit is widespread and affecting our kids?

 

So we should fix the public schools. Not leave the public schools as shit and set up better schools for people who can afford to pay for private.

And during her hearing she shamelessly evaded the question of whether she would seek to ensure that charter schools be held to the same testing standards as public.

 

That's interesting you should say that. The answer to fix it has historically been more funding but as the statistics show, we have already done that without results. When you start talking more accountability at the school or teacher level then there are complaints about performance metrics (and rightly so in many instances). So how do you fit it?

I'm not sure De Vos is the answer, I'm not a fan but there definitely needs to be a change in course when it comes to education. I'm not opposed to being given a choice because the whole 'fixing it' thing hasn't been working.

Au contraire, mon frere. If you are going to a private school and it is garbage, you switch schools. That is the beauty of the system, go elsewhere.

I think you are taking things to the far extreme in every example provided. Your baseline comparison is to compare schools to prisons? C'mon, tone it down and be serious about this. It really does warrant discussion.