Trump's education pick says reform can 'advance God's Kingdom'

[Eliot Rosewater]

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/betsy-devos-education-trump-religion-232150

The billionaire philanthropist whom Donald Trump has tapped to lead the Education Department once compared her work in education reform to a biblical battleground where she wants to "advance God's Kingdom."

Trump’s pick, Betsy DeVos, a national leader of the school choice movement, has pursued that work in large part by spending millions to promote the use of taxpayer dollars on private and religious schools.

Her comments came during a 2001 meeting of “The Gathering,” an annual conference of some of the country’s wealthiest Christians. DeVos and her husband, Dick, were interviewed a year after voters rejected a Michigan ballot initiative to change the state’s constitution to allow public money to be spent on private and religious schools, which the DeVoses had backed.

This is a state of emergency, this woman cannot be in charge of our education system.

[Pholus]

1. Look who her brother is. Why would you figure she'd be different?

[Eliot Rosewater]

4. Like I said, this is a state of emergency, very frightening but then so are all of

his appointments.

Sure wish we could go back to election day and ask 3rd party voters to not vote 3rd party.

[Raster]

2. This woman has already brought a heap o' hurt to Michigan schools...

...she is part of the uber-zealot flavor of Christians that believe they are fighting a holy way....

...and did we mention her brother is Eric "Blackwater" Prince, Darth Cheney*'s private "enforcer"?

[etherealtruth]

8. Mercifully Michigan does not have vouchers

(despite DeVos)

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/charterschoice/2017/01/why_michigan_doesnt_have_school_vouchers_and_probably_never_will.html?print=1


The DeVoses have been influential advocates and philanthropic supporters of school choice policies in their home state and beyond—helping launch and shape Michigan's charter school sector over the last two decades. But the DeVoses are also big proponents of school vouchers, which allow students to use public money to attend a private school.

So if the DeVoses have been so successful in influencing charter school policy in the state, why doesn't Michigan have a single voucher program? The answer has to do with something in the state's constitution called a Blaine Amendment.

Named for James G. Blaine, a U.S. representative from Maine who served in the House in the late 1800s, Blaine Amendments appear in 37 state constitutions, and they ban states from sending public money to private or religious institutions. Michigan's Blaine Amendment is the most restrictive in the country.

"This is a very specific Blaine Amendment to stop funds going to private schools," said Robert Enlow, the president and CEO of EdChoice. "Most other Blaine Amendments don't typically ... mention mechanisms like vouchers." Although the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that school vouchers did not violate the U.S. Constitution's establishment clause (because states don't choose which private schools to send the money to, parents do), Blaine Amendments in state constitutions, like Michigan's, have acted as a bulwark slowing the spread of vouchers.

[Jacob Boehme]

3. This is a Code Phrase!!!! "advance God's Kingdom"

Danger! Danger! This is the kind of coded message that the lunatic fringe Bible Thumpers use to signal each other that they're on the same team.... Betsy needs to get the Gong Show Exit hook NOW!!!!

[putitinD]

5. one persons religeon has been used since the dawn of time to destroy the lives of others.

[dalton99a]

6. while her brother Erik Prince slays heathens for profit

[democratisphere]

7. Put DeVos in charge of Sunday school, not our education system.

[Dawson Leery]

9. Remember that Christianity before the enlightenment was no

different from the Islam that the Christian nuts live in fear of. They are different sides of the same coin.

[underpants]

10. Grizzlies are God's creatures too

[Ken Burch]

11. "advance God's Kingdom"...as in Bring on the Last Days?

Uh...great...

[Eliot Rosewater]

13. Just wish we could go back to November 1, 2016, and we could all LOUDLY and AGGRESSIVELY

express our support for HILLARY and tell anybody who would listen we do NOT have to hold our noses to vote for her, etc.

[Ken Burch]

15. Excuse me, I DID support her in the fall.

n/t.

[Eliot Rosewater]

17. I wasnt referring to you specifically, just trying to make sure Jill Stein and

whatshisname idiot voters learned their lessons.

I just do that whenever I can, because I think some are still not learning that lesson.

[Parker DeWitt]

22. Whathisname idiot voters??? Really???

And now we now why Trump won -- total disdain for voters from the Clinton camp. You can't shit on voters and expect them to support you. It's attitudes like that put Trump in the White House. Congratulations. Enjoy the next four years!

[meow2u3]

23. Advance God's Kingdom undermine secular Constitutional democracy

and impose radical evangelical fundamentalism on those of us who don't share their kooky beliefs.

[jonno99]

12. Has her position been voted on yet? nt

[Eliot Rosewater]

14. No.

[jonno99]

19. Thanks. Looking around, it appears that the full senate votes will occur early next week. nt

[vlyons]

18. and which God would that be?

oh she means Jehovah, the jealous god. In Tibetan Buddhism, the asuras are the jealous gods. Always making trouble and waging war on the upper gods. But alas the realm of the asuras and the heaven of the upper gods are both still part of samsara.

So I don't need Mrs DeVoss to impose her version of "God's Kingdom" on me. I don't believe in her God, and neither do a lot of other Americans. I don't need her implying that my religious beliefs and practices are not as good as hers. What I do need is an Education secretary, who will fight for free higher education, great public schools, decent salaries for teachers, and pre-K childcare.

[bdamomma]

20. oh geez

go peddle that stuff somewhere else. it has no place in education.

[ProfessorGAC]

21. This Ought To Be A Disqualifying Statement

It's prima facie an advancement of a specific religious tenet. Don't we have some document that says the government can't do that, or something?