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Post by DADDY O on Feb 11, 2017 19:59:43 GMT
What does it take to be a member of Trump’s highest Cabinet? Very simple…………M O N E Y.............. No Qualifications necessary.
The Trump Cabinet is made up of the wealthiest men and women in the USA, all of which have donated millions of dollars each to his election fund. Only a few……very few are qualified for the position he offered them.
Let’s look at one of them to see if she is even remotely qualified to serve in the position Trump appointed her to…………..Elisabeth DeVoss (Betsy).
Betsy was born in Michigan and grew up in a far left wing religious sect…..”The Calvins”. She went to elementary school, middle school, high school and college within the Calvin Church. While at Calvin College, a liberal arts school located in Grand Rapids, Michigan, she met her future husband Dick DeVoss who ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for the governorship in Michigan. He is the former president of Amway, which his father co-founded, and of the Orlando Magic NBA team. Her brother, Erik Prince, founded Blackwater, the controversial security firm. Blackwater received widespread notoriety in 2007, when a group of its employees (under the Bush Administration) killed 17 Iraqi civilians and injured 20 in Nisour Square, Baghdad for which four guards were convicted in a U.S. court.
Betsy’s husband is a billionaire that has contributed millions of dollars not only to the Republican Party, but to Trump’s campaign as well. Because of these contributions, Betsy has been “appointed” to positions in local and state politics for years….but, her last appointment is a doozy, to say the least.
Betsy was appointed as ……you ready for this Sherri……Secretary of Education. Betsy has never taught public school, never attended public school, and never held elected office, but her hubby has enough money to overcome her lack of……well, I’ll be nice and just say experience.
In fact, other than the Calvin Church, she has never been in any school in the United States at anytime.
During her confirmation hearings in the US Senate, it was duly noted by several Democratic Senators that there were only two reasons why Betsy was nominated.
1. Her husband gave Trump a lot of money over the last two years, and
2. She is an advocate of Private Schools, not Public Schools.
By eliminating the Private School System, The USA can eliminate a large portion of the budget that is allocated for schools. By transferring students from public to private schools, the costs of education would then be transferred from Federal to individual payers. Does anyone really think through these hair brained schemes?
Betsy is very anti-Common Core Standards, which are minimum standards that all schools must meet in order to continue to receive educational funding. If the academics in a school fall below those standards, they are given two years to correct the problem, or face defunding. This is true whether the school is public, or private. DeVoss poured over 1.5 million dollars into an effort to prevent the State of Michigan from adding oversight to private schools…………..it still failed miserably.
Anyhow Sherri, I thought you might find it interesting to see who is heading up ALL of the schools in the USA.......we'll be teaching Chinese in all of our schools soon.
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Post by sherri on Feb 11, 2017 23:44:09 GMT
Chinese is already taught in the school I was at. Or mandarin, anyway.  Or Bahasa Indonesian. Kids get a choice.
A lot of times those in charge of the Education portfolio have no experience in schools. It is one of those very political portfolios unfortunately. I have heard it is even worse in NZ where at the local level, the principal of a school does not have to have any teaching experience either and in one school a local butcher got the job. The trouble with it is that a school is not a factory. Oh that it could be so easy-pick out the duds or damaged goods and chuck them in the bin. The problem with education is the school is only part of the equation. Home and society and IQ levels have huge impacts on learning too.
Trump is going to run USA as a business. I know he is labelled as a failed businessman but he isn't. He has used the system to advantage his own interests is what I suspect. This woman does not sound as if she has the political expertise to hold the position. The fact she has never taught is not unusual but what is unusual is the lack of any other experience.
The problem is everyone thinks they are an expert on the topic of education because they have been a school child themselves at one stage. It's like saying you've travelled in a plane and on a bus so you're an expert in transport.
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Post by DADDY O on Feb 12, 2017 1:11:44 GMT
Well by golly let's all roll over dead then because there is no hope.
What a defeatist attitude. It's OK to have no experience as long as you have money?
Pshawwww.
The government is NOT a business Sherri, and should not be run like one. If you did, you'd fire half of your workforce for trying to help their constituents instead of finding ways to screw them out of their money so you could cut your taxes instead of theirs.
But, thanks for the insight as to the education system in Australia.........one can see the results of it each time one goes to the Sanddancers Board. |
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Post by sherri on Feb 12, 2017 7:06:49 GMT
I didn't say anywhere that it was necessarily good, did I?
In fact quite the opposite I thought.
I said the woman didn't sound as if she had the necessary experience for any portfolio.
I said the education portfolio is unfortunately a very political one, not just in your country but in others.
That it is even worse in NZ where it interferes with everyday workings in schools.
And that many govts try to run it like a business-this % increase in results etc. I can well recall being told we had to lift speaking and listening results in our reports by 5-10%.
Honest to god, you tell me how exactly to give a % mark for that as speaking and listening are two very different skills in my opinion (yet lumped together for marking) and although I can say if someone is getting better or worse at speaking/explaining or listening, I don't know I can put a % figure on it. I doubt it. And thinking mathematically. I can mark maths as well as the next person and say if someone grasps maths concepts easily or with difficulty, but as for giving a % figure on their thinking, spare me!!
This is a business mentality creeping into education in my opinion, and they should stick to quantifying things which are properly measurable, such as reading, maths.
It doesn't mean I have rolled over & I agree with it all, I don't think I have a defeatist attitude, but the only way to fight politicians is in the ballot box/.
Americans chose Trump & I am sure he isn't going to be perfect but then again, Hilary was no prize either. You basically need a political system where the party members can dump a pres if he doesn't perform or loses too much popularity. Keeps them on their toes that way. Trump has a 4 year run and look on the bright side, he isn't taking any pay & to give the man his due, he is pretty well doing what he said he would do before the elections, so no surprises there.
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Post by mrp on Feb 15, 2017 10:07:39 GMT
I don't know what your beef is.
De Vos knows what she is talking about. She's an expert. The US Federal Department of Education owns no schools but regulates schools that don't want it around.
Much like the Aussie Federal Dept.
You seem to be jealous of the mega wealthy. Yes I know you run a decent business and are quite wealthy but you seem to have something against someone...because Amway.
Blackwater have a good record. They can't cover up their crimes, unlike the US military (or any other military).
Common core is the most nonsensical bullshit unleashed on society. 7 x 4 = 28. In common core, 4 x 7 is "wrong". What a stupid, crazy and fucked up "system" to impose on anyone. Absolutely retarded in the meanest and most venal sense of the word.
Schoool vouchers are great too. You cut out the Federal or State education department and let parents allocate funding. Democratic, market based. Good stuff.
The best person for the job is a teacher...or a businessperson. Not a lifelong career public servant schlep.
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Post by DADDY O on Feb 18, 2017 12:06:16 GMT
My "Beef" is, I want a President that acts like a President. One that does not lie about every stupid thing in the world just so he can feed his own ego. You know, stuff like the size of his crowd at his inauguration, the constant claim that he really won the popular vote, which ahs now been debunked by everyone. The fact that he knew about General Kelly's talks with the Soviets during the election, yet didn't do anything until it was leaked. A President that does not hate his own National Security Administrators. A President that has actually separated his businesses from his job as President. The list goes on and on and on.
De Voss is a moron that has never run anything in her life, other than giving money to Republicans. Her husband ran Amway.....not her. She is not qualified to be the Secretary of Education especially since she has never been in a public school in her life.
The next bozo up is Linda McMahon for Secretary of the Small Business Administration. She's even worse than DeVoss. McMahon's qualifications are....no listen carefully, because this one is the best one yet.......her husband is the owner of the World Wrestling Federation. Yep, the show of shows. WWF Smack Down. Are you ready to Rumble? ??
It's all fake. Both Wrestlers practice their "Moves" before the matches, and perfect their jumps and McMahon decides who the winner will be BEFORE the match begins. Here's a sample of the stupidity of the WWF, and a tribute to the Stupidity of Trump as well.
But...............the McMahons donate millions to the "Party". Thus, she is qualified.............right?
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Post by sherri on Feb 18, 2017 18:54:03 GMT
Common core is the most nonsensical bullshit unleashed on society. 7 x 4 = 28. In common core, 4 x 7 is "wrong". Schoool vouchers are great too. You cut out the Federal or State education department and let parents allocate funding. Democratic, market based. Good stuff. The best person for the job is a teacher...or a businessperson. Not a lifelong career public servant schlep. I am at a disadvantage as I don't know American 'common core' stuff, but I would be pretty surprised if 7x4 and 4x7 don't both =28 over there too. The only time children are told to turn things around is if it is a strategy to make it easier to work out mentally or with eg MAB blocks. For example when I had preps (5 year olds), there were a few who were quite bright and took to MAB easily. MAB has little blocks, commonly assigned a value of 1, and longer blocks=10.
Now the children could already count by 10s. So if you had a problem eg 4x10 or 10x4, you would explain that both come to the same answer in + and x, so you can turn it around and laying out 4 tens was much quicker than laying 10 lots of four and trying to count them. Or easier to work out mentally by counting by 10s if they didn't know the answer automatically.
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Post by sherri on Feb 18, 2017 19:05:34 GMT
Schoool vouchers are great too. You cut out the Federal or State education department and let parents allocate funding. Democratic, market based. Good stuff. You think? I've seen our govt response along these lines where special funding for some disadvantaged children was regularly paid at the start of the term I think it was, to the school. Parents were then informed by the school that it had been paid etc In my school, it was used to cover the school fees, books, supplies, excursions, some uniform supplies etc. Whenever an excursion or trip or whatever came up, those parents received a note that their child was covered. But the govt in its wisdom decided to pay the money direct into the parents' accounts so they had control over exactly how it was spent. A good half of the parents never spent it on education, the school after that never saw a cent of the money. Nor was anything like supply fees, excursion fees etc paid for. So what do you do? You can't punish the child & legally they have to be given all the supplies anyway, whether they pay or not. They don't have to be sent on the excursions but for day trip, the school subsidised them . In other words, other parents were paying. I would advise no cash and no voucher in their hot hands as these will be lost or never handed over.
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Post by mrp on Feb 21, 2017 12:38:22 GMT
That's not how vouchers are meant to work...that is intentionally designing them NOT to work!
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Post by mrp on Feb 21, 2017 12:44:13 GMT
Obama didn't lie? IRS spying on enemies. Nobel Peace prize (cough). "You can keep your insurance". Fast and Furious. Benghazi. Trump didn't lie about inauguration numbers. You believe the trash the left wing MSM puts out, but ironically, the CNN gigapixel proves the narrative wrong. Have a look at it yourself if you don't believe me. "De Voss is a moron that has never run anything in her life" I can safely ignore you now, but carry on. "She is not qualified to be the Secretary of Education especially since she has never been in a public school in her life." ...and the US Federal government doesn't own a single school. Quite frankly not being in a public school is a GOOD thing, she would expect more and have higher standards. I've heard public school teachers try to tell me private schools don't get better results...sorry they do. We can rationalise away the results, but they are hard data. (I almost felt sorry for the bloke...it is as though he knew if he had means he should have sent his own children elsewhere). "The next bozo up is Linda McMahon for Secretary of the Small Business Administration. She's even worse than DeVoss. McMahon's qualifications are....no listen carefully, because this one is the best one yet.......her husband is the owner of the World Wrestling Federation. Yep, the show of shows. WWF Smack Down. Are you ready to Rumble? ??" What's with the sexism? It is a family run business. |
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Post by DADDY O on Feb 21, 2017 17:59:04 GMT
Why is it if you disagree with an elected official, you are instantly labeled as a "Hillary" fan? Nothing could be further from the truth.
Let me say this again, in case you missed it........In the primaries I voted for Governor John Kasich. He didn't win. In the General Election, I did vote for Hillary, but as the lessor of two evils...turns out I was right on that issue.
Apparently someone's qualifications to serve in the particular office they are appointed to you is less important than how much money they have?
Just what the Small Business Administration needs...................more WWF Smack Down. Bring out the wrestlers and let them fake their way through yet another idiotic performance slanted toward all the Bubbas in the world.
Seriously?
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Post by sherri on Feb 21, 2017 22:09:15 GMT
Mr P-That's not how vouchers are meant to work...that is intentionally designing them NOT to work!
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That is exactly how vouchers work. Sorry, but you can't put any sort of money/voucher into the hot hands of parents, not if you expect all of it to eventually go to schools. I can promise you it won't all get there.
The best way I know of is if people have a monetary allowance made to them, that it should go directly to the school their child is enrolled at, but with strict conditions attached., so that it has to be used towards supplies for that child-their excursions, books, uniform or whatever.
Schools have extremely tough financial accountability routines. Checks and double checks, both within the school and from outsiders from the dept coming in to check the books every year or so.
Give some parents the money and I can guarantee it will be spent on drugs or drink and then what do you do? That child is still in the school and has to be supplied.
As for talk of private versus state schools.
There are a few things going on here. You have the teaching and support staff; you have the buildings and supplies, the environment if you like; you have the students.
Results may well be better. I would expect them to be. But I know of several private schools who have taken on new graduates who weren't that great (and I know that as they did rounds in my class). The wage cost matters, in all schools.
All graduates are on contract, state or private, so their job tenure is limited unless they perform.
The real difference is in the students. Private schools can expel students, they can refuse to accept students who are below the academic level they want, usually those students have parents who are paying for their education and care how they are doing.
So you're not comparing apples with apples when you look at the students in state/private system, that is for sure.
Off topic but wow, had a weird thing happen. Pushed the quote button on one of MrP's posts, as I was going to reply to it. Then couldn't see my post. Eventually noticed it in-MrP's post. It looked as if he had made the post. Not sure how I got into his post.
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Post by mrp on Feb 21, 2017 23:17:48 GMT
Hillary is a crook, Daddy O. I never said you suppoprted Hillary. All I said was hold both major parties to account.
I don't buy the whole "Clinton Cash" crapfest but she lied about Benghazi. She was too incompetent to hold state secrets.
As for Linda McMahon - you don't like what her family does as a business.
The US Federal government even having a "small business department" is a joke. It really ought to be abolished, like the US Federal Education Dept.
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Post by mrp on Feb 21, 2017 23:27:14 GMT
Sherri
If that is how the vouchers are meant to work, how can some parents double dip? Of course parents can spend the money as they like in a voucher system. Covering parents on top of this is just wasteful and not how it is meant to work.
Furthermore, the vouchers are meant to be in-kind, not cash. In-kind vs cash is a big area of debate in economic policy. Most of the time I'd err on cash. Not with vouchers though. Think about it, the parents hold the funds in a constructive trust.
"The real difference is in the students. Private schools can expel students, they can refuse to accept students who are below the academic level they want, usually those students have parents who are paying for their education and care how they are doing."
...and why is that? If the indigent had school choice, they would care more. They have no ownership or responsibility in the process now. Even middle class and affluent people in state schools now have no say. Got a complaint?....what are you going to do about it? A centralised curricula makes it worse. Say you're a data analyst. Say you've read Beenstock, Polder and Reigenwertz. Say you've read Svensmark's paper proving that clouds are formed by cosmic ray interaction. You know global warming is simply crap - the models have never passed scrutiny (they fail cointegration testing). Your kid legally has to learn this pseudoscientific garbage.
Worst of all is the education department. Not a single cent spent there gives any return.
Look at NSW, they just decided after decades that spelling and grammar now matter for the HSC (final senior high school exams for poms).
Yeah great move guys. I'm sure parents and teachers never could have made that decision for themselves.
The thing is sherri I always side with good teachers and principals. Centralisation makes education schooling and a joke.
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Post by DADDY O on Feb 22, 2017 19:15:03 GMT
Sherri The thing is sherri I always side with good teachers and principals.
We agree on that issue....well said.
I am a product of Public Education....all the way from Grade School (1-6) through Middle School (7-8), through High School (9-12) and even the Texas A&M University, where I earned two Bachelor degrees (Civil Engineering and Mechanical Engineering).....and, I have found that there is not too not much wrong with Public Education.
However, my wife and I decided that we would spend about $500 per month for each of our two granddaughters to attend a "Charter School" in Austin. They advertised a 90% graduation rate that went on to College. They didn't know how many graduated.
I would pick them up from school and bring them home and work with them on their homework.......especially math. What I found out was, it did not matter if they went to Public Schools or Charter Schools......what they needed was someone to work with them on problems they had no idea how to solve.
I came to the conclusion that the people who attend Charter Schools have parents that care and are willing to work with their children....most Public Schools...........not so much.
Education is a family matter. When families fail..........so do the children.
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