Betsy DeVos is a real piece of work as are her motor yachts, large and small, and racing sailboats; each adult son has his own Melges racing yacht with the family owning a total of 10 boats and 2 helicopters and of course, the requisite private jet or two. But nothing compares to Ditzy DeVos' McMansion: https://www.buzzfeed.com/terripous/of-course-this-is-what-betsy-devoss-v...
All of this splendor puts Ditzy in the same league as the Donald, though probably richer, as she "feels the pain" of today's over-leveraged students, particularly those who attended for-profit schools. But Ditzy will fix all that as she stuffs the Dept. of Education with her friends, the best and the brightest - all who really care about the debts of students with poor job opportunities. At $13.25 an hour, they'll probably be pulling the lines on one of the DeVos' yachts - forever.
65
So....Betsy DeVos can't be Secretary of Education because her family owns 9 yachts?
I guess your memory is so SHORT and convenient, you don't remember that OBAMA's Secretary of Commerce was Penny Pritzker -- literally one of the richest people in the world, with a net worth of BILLIONS of dollars -- she could have bought and sold the DeVos family 100 times over.
But that was OK because....Obama was a saint?
16
This link says the average salary for a PhD in philosophy is $94,000.
That is the average for a PhD.
Don't know what the starting salary.
Don't know how many PhDs in Philosophy can't get a job.
https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Degree=Doctor_of_Philosophy_(PhD)/S...
3
It took me 10 seconds to find lists of accredited and non accredited institutions, eg:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unaccredited_institutions_of_highe...
Why on earth would anybody take out large loans, and send their money to these places?
Bottom feeding predators such as DeVos should be put out of business of course. But how is it possible for anybody with 20 or more years of life experience to not have developed any survival skills, such as spotting blatantly obvious trumpU-like scams? Predators can only exist in domains overflowing with easy prey (eg trump supporters).
30
Trump doesn't need a "Space Force" for an excuse to get a bunch of uniforms (made in China, of course - or in USA by minimum wage employees) to adorn his "Generals". Then they could also wear his commemorative gold coins made into medallions and parade down Pennsylvania Avenue without taxpayer money being wasted.
We, the American people, are under siege. We are under cyberattack by Russia, and what does this administration do? Try to suppress information by attacking the Free Press and the First Amendment. An uninformed public is easier to control.
DeVos's actions is the tip of the iceberg. All of our agencies led by Trump appointees are doing horrible damage to our nation. This is not a conspiracy theory...it is happening every day under our noses while Tweets and Proclamations from Trump take all the oxygen in the headlines.
For a sampling of what is going on, check out Rep. Michael Capuano's weekly A Look Behind the Curtain...you can also click on the link there to see previous alerts.
http://capuano.house.gov/news/curtain.shtml
VOTE, VOTE, VOTE (tho only once, please) and take back our country from these sycophants and financial vampires who are draining our treasury and our moral wealth.
37
We should rename the Republican Party the Duplicitous Party.
16
Arf, Arf, Gail these institutions are state licensed and regulated, yet your rants are devoid of any reference to that fact. It's easier to attack the Trump administration than acknowledge the lack of appropriate state oversight. You need to improve your dog attack!
9
Government by Pirates.
17
This should be the start of columns to relentlessly expose how Trump’s appointees are destroying what could make America great. Ignore the sideshows- these are the main events being hidden behind the smoke of tweet fires. DeVos is a good place to start- she is incredibly unqualified to fix the major issues of our inadequate, if not at times outright incompetent, educational systems. She sees schools as profit centers not centers of learning. We now have at least 2 generations of citizens who conceivably have never written an essay, who have no critical thinking skills, and who graduate with no useful knowledge other
than when all else fails, choose “C”. But they have been told they are exceptional - as impossible a reality as the poll that found that most adults believe they are better than average drivers. Some believe that because our teachers must pass tests to get a teaching certificate that this is proof of their smarts. I beg to differ. Like many other grading situations, the test result are
most likely graded on a curve which means that proof of knowledge and competence be damned- a preordained percentage will pass or the test questions need to be adjusted to obtain the desired pass rate. We have never held teaching in high regard and our best and brightest rarely become teachers, and are now paying the price. If one was to cynically point out
that Republicans do better with the poorly educated, then perhaps DeVos’ appointment makes sense on several levels.
14
Just an industry gal. What do you expect from an Amway caption?
13
She’s a walking, talking bag of wind; ignorance personified. A prominent bottom feeder in Donald Trump’s overflowing sewer of an administration.
31
I wouldn't be surprised if Betsy DeVos is one of those people who think they're pampered and rich because god has decreed they are better than the unwashed masses.
Sure would be fun to be there when she's proven wrong.
23
A radical anti-intellectual of the 1st magnitude. Grotesque.
18
I prefer Betsy Riot.
I'm convinced her unmoored yacht went searching for her qualifications. It didn't find them, either.
Imagine if Betsy's unpaid yacht taxes — and all of the massive untaxed wealth hiding in offshore havens put there by her billionaire friends — actually came back to fund essential services like public education, clean water, emergency/fire/police departments, etc.... I know, crazy, right? I can dream... of a time when Trump and his gang of thieves are out of office, unable to greedily divide our nation's spoils amongst themselves.
39
Ugly inside and out and dumb as a brick, plus they "made", er stole, all their criminal grifting money on AMWAY, giant pyramid ponzi scam, what a joke.
28
The leftists have always despised independent strong women who think for themselves and can articulate two related sentences consecutively. Instead they prefer the democrat lapdogs who dutifully read the usual talking points. I'm sorry that Ms. DeVos doesn't fit your mold.
14
“I do not see how all these courses on Heidegger are going to get him work.”
Did someone say that Martin Heidegger was a Nazi? No? Well they should have.
‘Being and Time’ is a piece of garbage used in “Continental Philosophy” as a way to make Existentialism less accessible, and leave it open to lots of room for whatever magical thinking that allows for Phenomonology to be taken seriously.
All technicalities aside though, Philosophy majors can earn a surprisingly high salary, even if they don’t go to graduate school (don’t tell Marco Rubio).
2
But are we reading about her in the news section New York Times?
13
The admissions exam for a for-profit college must be to show that you are not smart enough to not buy into a farce.
8
What kind of education does DeVos have? Did she ever read about the French Revolution? Has she at least read A Tale of Two Cities? Because back in the day, people like her (10 yachts, for God's sake!) ended up on the guillotine -- "the national razor," as Dickens called it. She'd better beware.
17
Like Pruitt, Price, Manuchin , The Devil DeVos had one agender. Get more rich, get her medieval, archaic views out there. Like the Koch brothers and all the other donors they see anyone not of their group as not worthy. Who in this world sees all this excess of wealth and instead of adding multitudes of riches in things would not want to help? Imagine the people who could've been helped with BDV buying food for a shelter, or paying medical for children , instead of buying 1 of her yachts! There is truly evil in some . When you see suffering and walk by with the knowledge you could help and don't. You are evil, and guilty of greed.
10
Betsy met Trump's criteria for a cabinet seat. While not a "10", she was easily a (perhaps surgically- and absolutely a wealth-enhanced) "8". That she would suck the life out of Education was Crayola on the diploma.
13
What she wants is for white kids to be brainwashed by parochial and elite white schools. Her objection to public schools is that they're multi-racial; she wants to get the white kids out and leave the public schools to die of malnutrition.
18
In Betsy's Michigan (her family runs the state GOP, and hence, the state), charter schools are unregulated. Whether they are good or bad, they are funded & untouchable. From what I have heard from the hometown peeps in Holland MI, the Princes were all about saving souls (Mom funded Prop 8 in Cali & poured millions into "seeding" churches everywhere). Is DeVos a Dominionist? A Hyper-Capitalist? A Libertarian? Or just another dopey, rich sociopath? Would love to see the NYTs do a deep dive on this family; they are wildly powerful and much more than a punchline...
31
How to we spell 'FRAUD' in this administration? TRUMP.
10
Public school unions ruined education in this country, not Ms DeVos.
7
The DeVos fortune was built on Amway. This was a scheme that involved getting gullible people to annoy their friends into buying overpriced poor, quality soap. Apparently Betsy is still hawking suds in the form of over priced, poor quality pseudo private schools b
31
The Trump Doctrine: Rats take over the henhouse.
15
Imagine 60 million Americans being fooled by a greedy self centered billionaire who never did one thing civic minded yet sold folks by sounding like a working man's populist. Once Halloween was over and we actually had an election, the mask came off. The con man who only values rich people since his god is money, appointed an elitist cabinet, including this vacuous woman. All Trump has been is a pawn for the donor class. Time people figured this out.
17
Remember when rich folks funded libraries, opera houses and parks in America? And education?
We have a predator mentality at the top that is disgusting.
When people finally realize that they can pluck these vultures like DeVos by joining forces against them, there is going to be a reckoning.
29
Thanks to Gail Collins for providing me some laughs through the tears. Always appreciate her honest and fun prose while our country is rotting from within.
5
All of Trump's cabinet nominees were picked to be the absolute worst choice anyone could have come up with to fill the post. Betsy DeVos is a prime example. Her goal is for education to be privatized, with no standards, with of course, only the wealthy benefitting from such a system. Too bad about the rest of your children.
Meanwhile Republicans appointed more conservative judges to higher courts this week while the ongoing Trump entertainment spectacle keeps us all distracted. They are gleeful that all their wishes of cutting taxes for the wealthy, and controlling the Judiciary are coming true under Trump.
We are not the country we were just a year and a half ago. We have lost our moral compass. We are impotent to stop DeVos and all the others in Trump's administration from destroying everything from education to the environment. Will November change anything? That remains to be seen. Even with a Democratic House majority, Trump will still have executive power, which he loves to wield.
12
De Vos was impossible to stop. So may tried. She is living up to her promise and is dismantling public education for all which bodes very badly for the future of democracy. Insidious. Yep.
3
I've told many young people to get the best education money can buy, and then leave the US for an overseas job, and stay there. The Feds don't have the resources to track them all down. Yes, it would mean leaving family behind, and perhaps rejecting citizenship. But, when the country has hemorrhaged enough talent maybe they'll come around. DeVos and her ilk, are nothing more than vultures feeding off the rapidly depleting trough.
7
Philosophy is, at its simplest 1500 character core, three main schools of thought: Metaphysics & Epistemology; Logic; Ethics.
Metaphysics & Epistemology deal with the way we think about the world we live in, who we are, and the things that we know or the things that we think that we know.
Logic deals with how we communicate with each other. It’s how we make sense to each other and ourselves.
Ethics is concerned with how we treat each other and the world around us.
They may not be conscious of this fact, but every sane human, including OpEd columnists, does something in each of these fields on a daily basis.
The same can’t be said for calculus, chemistry, structural engineering or auto-shop, all of which are vocational training.
In 20 years when the computer technology, bioscience and technical innovations are unrecognizable from what they are today, all the STEM majors who will be working for your nephew, will look to him for guidance.
Encourage him nephew to study Heidegger. You may want to consider picking some up yourself.
Then again you may want to start with logic. It might do wonders for your column.
3
This nonsensical abuse of ordinary Americans offers no source for humor anymore. I'm sorry, as much for myself as for anybody or anything else, because Gail Collins usually provides such a chuckle.
But the awfulness of this execrable administration headed by such an abominable figure has gone well beyond the possibility of even a twisted smirk of irony. Therein lies the rub. The issue is not Betsy DeVos any more than is is Scott Pruitt, Tom Price, The Mooch, Mike Pence, Stephen Miller, Mike Flynn, Steve Bannon, Paul Manafort, Ryan Zincke and, yes, even Omarosa.
These atrocious figures got where they are because President Trump put them there. And we put Donald Trump where he is. Shame on us!
7
Republicans own the entire Trump mess. Too bad they don't care about the well being of the country. They are traitors, if not by the letter of the law, then certainly in spirit.
The whole lot are truly deplorable.
6
The repeal of these rules are in line with Republican economic policy. Since "trickle-down" doesn't work, the repeal functions as a giant vacuum - sucking away the remaining assets and dignity of decent Americans.
8
This issue is not so black and white. I’m guessing the author knows this and that’s why she didn’t put any specifics in this piece. Yes - obviously there are some bad actors out there, and we need to make sure they can’t intentionally deceive prospective students. But guess what - Betsy DeVos ageees! What she doesn’t agree with is giving for-profit colleges a higher bar than public colleges. We can debate whether it’s reasonable to require a for-profit college to be a better “deal” than a public college (despite the obvious disadvantage of not having as much public funding). And we can debate where the bar should be for a student who feels like they got duped to get a taxpayer bailout. However, it’s hard to have that debate when top newspapers are putting these polarizing articles with no actual information in them on their homepages.
7
Gail! What's happened to the "who's the worst Cabinet appointee" contest?? Or has Secretary DeVos been declared the default winner for the duration? I mean, there's still Ryan Zinke, right? And Ben Carson, right?? And Wilbur Ross, right??? Wilbur was sort of under my radar until recently (education, housing, and the environment being prime causes and concerns for me), but recently he's kind of sky-rocketed his way to the top . . . or the bottom. Till then, it was usually a tie between Ms. DeVos and, oh yes, who was that guy?? Scott Pruitt?? But he's gone back to Oklahoma, hasn't he?? Or has he just moved over to K Street?? Or am I thinking of another Scott -- or that Tom Price fellow?? So many questions. I do miss your contest though. And, well, we're not halfway through the first four years. I do realize with so many comings and goings and so much incompetence and corruption everywhere you look, it's easy to want to just toss in the towel and declare a winner . . . But if you can find it in your heart to do so, bring back the contest. After all, we've been swept into and are living in a reality show world now . . . and who knows? Maybe we'll be hearing those immortal words, "you're fired!" some time soon. With this guy, you just don't know. Likes to keep us on our toes. Or tweets. Thanks, Gail for considering my plea. (PS: Really sorry about that yacht. Good thing they've got a couple of back ups, huh?)
8
She is the perfect fit for DJT.
Uneducated an unqualified. She’ll just do whatever is on her mind at the time.
Sound familiar?
This is the same education secretary that admitted in a recorded (both audio and video) interview that she had never visited an under performing school.
This is the equivalent to doctor stating that he never visits the sick people.
She is a joke, but no one is laughing!
Sound familiar?
Vote 11/6!
6
Are we sure that the school Donald brags about is really Wharton?
Maybe the fine print on Donald's degree is like that GOP lady running for office in Florida who faked her degree and diploma but kept whining about "the fake news". She oughta know I guess.
Maybe Trump went to for-profit Wharton Hears a Who Bizness Skool. Anybody look? Would explain a lot about his Cabinet.
10
It would take a village to replace the overly rich Secretary of Education that got the job from President Trump in appreciation for her real generous political contribution to his campaign. Neither of them care about the education of children in public schools.
In retrospect, the Republicans are the traitors of America. They always had the tendency of favoring the rich but were fiscally responsible; protected our Constitution and were cautious about the debt.
Now, they’re out of control; there is no fiscal conservatism. They’ve ignored Trump’s incapacity to govern; how he’s economically bankrupting this country and his lack of decency and respect. They are the “yoyos” of Trump and the President is proudly holding the strings.
In November, just remember that “a new brush sweeps clean.”
9
No snark intended here, but it’s hard to know: is Betsy DeVos is just a rich person who is on a mission to help other wealthy people cash in via school privatization? Or is it possible that she believes that the actions she’s promoting are actually going to benefit students?
Can even those people born with a silver spoon be so massively uncaring about decent people getting fleeced so openly by for-profit “schools” that are set up, like Trump University, merely to extract money from naive students? What do these people tell themselves at night? That capitalism is an end in itself and justifies any level of financial predation?
4
Just one more instance of the GOP promoting entrepenuers who are actually carnival barkers, trying to get the rubes to pay first before they can see the show. De Vos inherited her wealth, but is in favor of her fellow tricksters. Just like Mnuchin (home foreclosures during the 2008 meltdown) and Wilbur Ross (Crete bank run for tax evaders). The GOP will not change this--they will talk about "freedom" and "government interference". If you want to change this, vote straight Dem on Nov. 6.
6
Sadly de Vos fits right in with trump's appointees: venal and/or incompetent. And as for oversight, the GOP Senate is merrily going along approving Trump's judicial picks: inexperienced, biased or (we will probably find venal and/or incompetent.)
Seems our insecure and unfit president is stacking his decks with people who can offer no threat of better performance.
Oversight? Guess what, the GOP refuses to release all documents about the new SCOTUS pick....wonder why.
4
Ms. Collins, you didn't mention that Ms. DeVos' and her family's enormous wealth came from her father's having founded Amway, the barely legal pyramid scheme that stole millions from the willing and gullible.
13
So far Trump’s administration seems to be trying an experiment to see what would happen if the worst and most incompetent people were put in charge of everything. So far so good. Couldn’t get much worse than Ditsey DeVos, that’s for sure.
6
We cannot value belief over knowledge, nor define 'elites' as a bad thing, and then not expect the likes of DeVos to destroy the basic building blocks (education) of this great democracy.
We cannot regard theocrats as benign, ignore the lessons from established theocracies, and pay lip service to the notions of 'separation of church and state' - and not risk producing an uneducated, ignorant, fearful population, and have the likes of DeVos enjoy popular support.
I have a simple solution for republicans who think that America's education system is bad, and a left wing indoctrination camp. Please keep your children away from school, away from books (except the one), and punish them for asking questions that cannot be answered by 'because that is what god wants.' As you suggest, education is funded by taxpayers, and is therefore socialist. As you worry, too many non-Norwegian types benefit from education. Hence, just as you are against healthcare, you are against education.
Please tell your children that math and science are sorcery, and continue sending them to your camps where they are taught that everyone else is unworthy. Require daily viewing of Fox, memorization of the gospel by Limbaugh, Nugent, and Alex Jones, and daily reading of Brietbart.
A democracy cannot require people to abandon ignorance, nor change people's minds and hearts about justice. Abraham was the last guy who truly understood this. We should learn from him. You go DeVos!
7
There's something about bringing all little children to God's kingdom that sends a chill up me spine. Next: a push for prayer in schools.
10
Betsy de Vos notwithstanding, to me the real elephant in the room is the question of how come the existing system of universities, colleges and community colleges (you know, the places that have a charter to their communities) are not sufficiently able to accommodate students like Stephanie Stiefel. How come someone like her has to resort to the for-profit colleges? What can be done? Are Americans willing to do it?
To me those for-profit colleges should never have been needed.
1
@Robbie J.
Some of the training they offer should have been available to high school age students who are not aiming for an academic degree.
Some programs that people pay for-profit schools for ARE available (in NYS) at community colleges. Why do people choose to pay so much more? Because they do not educate themselves, and take the word of salespeople making false promises. Also -because people are graduating from high school without any basic financial understanding.
12
Great observations once again Gail. I always look forward to your insightful takes on our disheveled trump nation. Now it's education.
A lot of these schools that DeVos is helping (okay, all of these schools that DeVos is helping) you'd find on the backs of seamy magazines, like "Police Detective", a great spot to look for educational opportunities.
And right, you can see a path forward in education with an undergraduate degree from Liberty University and graduate work at trump University. Liberty is probably accredited, but it's link to trump is well known. Jerry Falwell Jr. positively worships trump. So with a recommendation from Falwell, you can get into trump University. Also, signing up for lifetime payments will get you into trump University.
I think that DeVos should turn one of her yachts into one of those educational cruises. Students could tour all of the countries that don't have extradition treaties with the U.S. and that are good places to avoid taxes and launder money.
I feel sorry for those students who were bilked by these fly-by-night educational scams. Many students don't have guidance from savvy parents who know about schooling, so students are left on their own. They can't buy their way into Wharton the way trump did.
And no one could hope to have the mentorship from a great business man the way that Omarosa did. She learned to turn it all back on her boss, taking the wind out of the bloviator's sails. Now it's he trump yacht that's adrift.
1
It is illogical to think that for-profit schools will provide a better education than non-profit ones: they are first and foremost interested in making money; student outcomes are a secondary interest. I’ve worked in both and have seen this to be true. The for-profit schools place no importance on credentials and their knowledge of curriculum and evidence based teaching methods and materials is woeful or nonexistent. Many I worked in folded mid year due to mismanagement. No wonder Betsy DeVos advocates them; she has no education credentials or background either. Giving her the highest position in education was and is an insult to trained educators everywhere.
9
Many private educational institutions raise tuition prices and then sell this debt to investors at a discount. (Art Institute of Chicago, for example.) The companies handling the sale of the debt also make a profit on the sale.
I would very much appreciate reading more about these sales, the companies involved, the size of the market and how these investments are rated.
Will these "investments" require a public bailout at some point in the future?
3
Not to worry. In a few years there won't be any high paying professional jobs left in America, so who needs a college degree? The republican goal has long been to outsource such positions to lower paid professionals in foreign countries. We'll be left with low paying menial work and retail (until brick and mortar stores are no more). Every time Betsy gets another charter school, or on-line at-home school going (which are paid for with taxpayer dollars) she erodes public education which was the hallmark of American progress. Remember, back in the day when America was "great," slaves weren't allowed to learn to read because they might figure things out. Only the best con-artists and scammers for the Trump Administration.
28
There have certainly been bad players in the for-profit business, but it is only fair to make not-for-profit and state schools comply with the same Gainful Employment requirements. Bye bye philosophy degree. What's good for the goose should be good for the gander.
4
How did you develop your standard of fairness here? It's only fair that A, totally unlike B, be subject to the same regulations? By your methodology, we should also feed hay to dogs.
2
@Patrick That makes no sense. First, a philosophy degree is actually valuable in learning to think, a skill which, given the State of the Union, is in short supply these days. Second, no one claims that a philosophy degree is the road to whatever financial nirvana that you aspire to achieve.
6
@Patrick...... false equivalency at it's finest.
Between the DeVos, Van Andel & Prince families you have a history of wealthy religious conservatives using their power and influence to dominate the citizens of Michigan in service to their ideological obsessions. Like many wealthy people they slap their names on institutions and places using philanthropy as a distraction from their intent on remaking society in their image and at their service.
Children of wealth and privilege like DeVos and her brother the mercenary Eric Prince are living examples of the legacies of those families and the outsized harm they can do. Like Bush jr. and Trump they are in positions of power due mostly to their families wealth and influence and the results are as predictable as they are disastrous.
Eric and Betsy’s father invented a clever window visor and became very wealthy because of it. Now his children undermine public education and serve middle eastern monarchies security needs. The wealthy rarely are a benefit to society and we deceive ourselves when we think they are.
51
While glancing notice is paid to primary and secondary education in this cute piece, that's where the real grift appears.
If you like places like Trump University and DeVry, you'll love the future of education for America's small children.
All over the country, not just in Michigan, voucher schemes and for-profit chains are putting public schools out of business. At the worst, they are storefront Bible schools. At the best, they are "scalable" profit centers that sit children at computers all day. Because these schools relieve local communities of tax burdens, unwitting citizens go along with the takeover.
This is the DeVos, Koch and Walmart blueprint.
If we lose our public school system, we lose our democracy, if we haven't lost it already.
48
I might have more empathy except that this ignores the fact that there are good for-profit higher ed institutions that provide meaningful training in fields like electronics, nursing, auto repair and the like. The article also ignores the fact that our public & state universities also pump out far too many grads with essentially worthless degrees and these students too are also not qualified to do much more than serve coffee. Freedom of choice and competition are paramount. The last thing we want is government controlling higher education because we all know what a great job they've done with K-12.
3
@Keith state run university systems are still the gold standard for most aspiring students. what has happened is that administrative, tuition and book costs have gone off the charts. this system that has been systematically broken we need to fix it not give the keys to people with a profit interest.
21
@Keith
Please name the good ones--and use the ones you know about in Pittsburgh if that makes it easier.
Also provide information on how you know they are "good for-profit" institutions.
11
@Keith
Let's name a few good for-profit schools, Keith. I've looked into a few in my area and they all charge more than the local community colleges and have rotten reputations.
The taxes DeVos avoids paying on her yachts could provide food stamps for a several temporarily strapped working family for a year.
Who's the welfare taker here?
41
The idea that keeping your own money is welfare is the best description of what’s wrong with liberals that I’ve ever read.
3
Betsy Devos's motto: Make America Greedy Again.
16
Very very loud groan.
Uuuuugggghhhhhhh!!!!
We need a divorce from DeVos.
17
Thank heaven for your constant attention and Opinions that expose these awful people and what they are doing to this country. Please don’t stop writing and publishing these columns Gail, now or ever.
20
Gail; This is the first misspelling I've ever seen in your many fine writings. Pain is spelled P-A-I-N, and not B-A-N-E.
2
Great article Gail. Without a doubt Socrates has described the moral and religious depravity of the attack on the weakest and most desperate of us to a tee. There are many great comments here.
The question that troubles me is how can we repair the damage done already to the victims of fraud and prevent these fraudsters from getting poor people or anyone else to montage their futures for a worthless piece of paper.
We may be able to fix this with a change in the bankruptcy law. These creditors(banks and loan companies) are not stupid they know what kind of schools the applicants are seeking loans for. The government can make a list of diploma mills and phony colleges and those having student loans should be able to cancel them out in bankruptcy. The lenders are part of this fraud.
Of course the gang which is presently abusing it’s power in Washington and ignoring their oaths of office will do nothing.
So there are three things we need to do. (1) elect a Democratic majority House, (2) elect a Democratic majority Senate (both of which could be done this November) and last, in 2020 elect a Democratic president to go with a Democratic Congress.
Then and only then can the massive job of repairing the damage that the GOP has done to America via McConnell and Trump. Then we can address universal health care, a tax increase for millionaires, bankruptcy, consumer protection and election laws, etc.
But first we have to register and then vote.
6
Whenever a GOP official utters a cliche with the word "burdensome" in it like "burdensome demands" you can bet some profiteer is being stymied by an effective regulation and the politician is intent on rolling back restrictions on greed at the expense of the public.
10
Awhile ago I watched Mrs DeVos answering questions in Congress I was startled and amazed
I am still shocked that Mrs DeVos could not state the core mission of the Department of Education she is supposed to lead not destroy. Then she answered most questions with a stock answer that had nothing substantive in it.
Shaking my head I found myself appalled and disgusted as well as very alarmed then saddened.
11
Amway is the Ponzi scheme that made the DeVos family rich and therefore more favored by God than the rest of us. For Trump, this theology of God's material favor toward the rich, is the moral justification for both his team and his donors. Surely if God has not seen fit to give the poor a fighting chance, why should that responsibility be shouldered by a pack of rich thieves? Traditionally, many of the poor and ignorant from ancient India to modern Appalachia have supported this idea. Our founders and their Savior did not.
12
The bottom line is that the federal government has no place in the classroom. It is a states issue and Washington’s control via their big checkbook is not supported by two centuries of the Enumerated Powers. That’s the benefit of United STATES! Alabama need not spend as much as New York on public education and New York need not legislate gun laws that match Virginia’s. Massachusetts can set a state wide 55 MPH limit and Texas should be allowed to decide where 75 is appropriate. And so on.
1
What's even more amazing is that Trump supporters have no interest in the truth about Trump or the damage he and his hench-people are doing to this country, on the average person, and family, in the quest for the last penny of profit.
5
Betsy is a bane alright -- for those progressives who don't want poor children to have the educational opportunities that those same progressives insist on for their own children. How you gonna keep 'em voting Democratic if you expose them to real opportunities?
3
@Uysses - Fascinating. Please provide some examples of poor children who are going to the same schools that the children of Trump’s cronies are going to and explain how Trump and company are making it possible?
13
The article focused on shoddy for profit colleges that amass huge personal debt and don’t deliver on their promises for good jobs. They are scam operations, a la Trump U.
If you have earned Breyer opportunities for your children than someone else has, how does the government have the right to negate that and handicap your success.
But Trump voters love this Culture War. They will crawl on broken glass and suffer any privation to worship their new Messiah.
This article will not affect them, because it is not on Fox news, it's not mentioned in Infowars, etc.
They will blame the Deep State, Social Justice Warriors, Globalists, George Soros, Hillary and Bill, Obama, of course, and you get the picture.
There is no way to persuade Trumpies to alter their ideas, because for them, it's a religion.
They will not, and cannot, entertain new ideas.
14
Here's one thing I have learned, without any help from the Education Secretary or Gail, for that matter: Never think or say that it can't get any worse.
9
There is no doubt that some of these for-profits are nothing but fly- by-nights. But what they are doing is luring suckers in to collect high tuition from government guaranteed student loans. This started and flourished well before DeVos. In fact, it was perfected under Obama.
No prospective student should pay any attention to these promises and the ones who do are, yes, suckers (they're born every minute). Students wishing to enter the workforce should go to a reputable college or university and major in a STEM degree. Or get vocational training. And they should probably get a part time job to supplement the costs.
This is big business now and it does need to be stopped. But Arne Duncan and Obama helped to grow it and the democrats in congress support it. It's out of control. Let the buyer beware.
Why should Betsy DeVos be any different than the rest of the Cabinet. The first criteria to be nominated by Trump was that they all share the same values as Trump. Those values would be greed, destruction of our Democracy, chicanery, destroy the economy for personal gain, turn their backs on our allies and do Putin's dirty work for him. And that is just a small list of their values.
So why would we ever expect DeVos to care about a poor student or their education?
And not let me forget the part the Republican Congress played in all this. They voted to put all of them in their Cabinet positions.
It would appear then that the Republicans in Congress share the same value system.
We are up the creek without a paddle. Their is not one in leadership roles in the Republican Party who cares about this country.
I hope they all get voted out and that the Cabinet members and Trump are kicked out of their respective jobs for lack of devotion to our Country. They are not Living up to their Oath of Office.
3
Gail, Trump is more willing to fire people than you give him credit for. Just ask James Comey.
2
Trump waited until Comey was 3,000 miles away, and then had his bodyguard deliver the bad news. Or has Kelly do it and proclaims ignorance (well, he’s right about that part). Trump’s a bully and a coward, obsequious to those who can hurt him and nasty to those he perceives as less powerful than he. And the whole world sees it quite clearly; only the determinedly blind/deaf/dumb portion of the GOP that still support him can’t seem to.
6
@Maureen Trump is most willing to get people fired--but you may notice that he always gets someone else to carry out the actual deed.
3
How do Republicans like Susan Collins, Bob Corker, Jeff Flake, and Lindsey Graham let them do this to our country.
16
we have a president who doesn't read books
12
Trump promised to drain the swamp. His cabinet and himself are the cesspool. They are only interested in enriching themselves.
11
Gail, looks like your back in the fight. We need you.
And I love yacht metaphors. All those ship of fools jokes and deck chairs on a sinking Titanic. And just like all the poor souls on that fateful voyage , we too have very little time
before this ship of state sinks and the wealthy try to get to the life boats first. And our democracy is lost too .
Our children can just wait for the next steamer. Americans show
little remorse when their children are shot at or underfed or undereducated and over charged and unloved.
VOTING IN LARGE NUMBERS IN NOVEMBER is our only way to achieve a rectified steady course .
It’s our country and OUR White House.
26
It's no wonder that even Trump refers to her as "Ditsy" DeVos.
6
The difference between Betsy and Omarosa is that the latter realized she's a lucky over-achieving incompetent playing a rigged game, while the former believes her intellect put her where she is and she deserves all the gains and power she has, no matter how ill-gotten.
15
@wcdevins
Oh, I doubt Betsy de Vos has illusions about her own intellect. I would guess she understands she was simply born into wealth, and is therefore deserving of getting whatever she wants. She knows she isn't qualified, I guess, but I don't think she lets it trouble her.
4
Betsy DeVos and her family are the reason why we got the Trump Trickle Down Tax Cuts, 10 yachts just are not enough, she must have 12.
6
The harm that this President has done to American prestige and race relations will take many years to correct.
24
We can't see Betsy De Vos ("Ditsy Betsy", h/t Amorosa via Donald Trump) without thinking of Trump University and how our president has scammed America. Ms. De Vos, who gave family riches mightily to Campaign Trump, is in the catbird seat as Secretary of Education. This woman, who promotes for-profit schools to strangle education for the poor, deserves an F- for her lack of empathy for students and families who care about education, but lack the money to pay for it. There is nothing at all funny about Betsy De Vos, or the crisis we Americans are all in now in this administration by an unfit and bigoted and poorly educated president. He's the worst of the worst and has chosen big donors, not "the best people!", as his department heads. Betsy De Vos is only one among Trump's MAGA people. When are we going to rise up? Resist? Remove the grifter from the White House (or New Jersey, where he issues his demented malign tweets at his golf club every weekend)? Donald Trump has sown the wind... "Stay tumed!", and "we'll see!", as he murmurs to his rallying ignorant loyalists. He will reap the whirlwind soon (Hosea 8-7).
18
Since much of education is taxpayer supported, no student should be allowed to use any more than they need to get a job that businesses need filled. Anything beyond that should be at ones own expense and if you cannot afford that you do not get it. It’s absurd, even criminal that we allow someone who will ed up stocking shelves at Target to utilize publicly funded K-12 when they have sufficient education to do that job following the sixth grade.
1
One question you forgot to ask, did Stephanie Steifel vote for Trump?
1
Vapid and clueless are the traits of every Trump cabinet member, but Betsy (Trump’s “Ditzy DeVos”) takes the cake.
What a disaster.
12
When de Vos is not praying to her God of Mammon, she probably uses her yacht - which must surely rank as one of the ugliest boats on the water - to keelhaul students who have fallen behind in their payments. No doubt they have to pay upfront for the use of the rope.
16
You forgot Erik Prince. Wasn’t he tied to the roof of the yacht when it went to the Seychelles?
9
For a change a funny column from Ms. Collins , so perhaps, just perhaps she's got her groove back. Agree with her about these phony colleges. Sought training as a broadcaster and approached 1 "bonimenteur"who promised me that for the sum of about $10,000 dollars they would give me the training and then promised to get me an internship at a local radio station, Before sending them any money, I checked with the station, believe it featured a talk show host by the name of Steve Caine, and his assistant, Brian Craig informed me that the station did not accept interns and that what I had been told was a scam!Saved me 10 grand!De Vos is a liability,"c'est sur et certain!"
6
So is Betsy the next target of the anti-Trump movement? It sounds like she should have been the first.
7
I think my dog would do a better job as Secretary of Education than Ditzy Devos has done.
7
Her goals are simple: make sure whites get a real education and hurt everyone else by letting them learn to bible thump or borrow money. Odious bane is too kind a description.
6
De Vos is just another swamp creature in a cabinet full of swamp creatures.
5
For-profit schools are yet another in the endless libertarian quest to find ways to stick a straw in the public coffers and suck them dry. These loans are government backed student loans designed to make higher education more accessible to students who don't come from rich families. The loan is backed by public funds, goes directly into private profit, leaving the student with the debt and a useless degree.
These people hate big government, but they love a big government contract or loan guarantee.
16
A grinning, low brow Cheshire Cat.
4
The O'Jays covered this administration totally: Money money money money ......MONEY.
4
I heart you Gail Collins.
3
Trump cannot fire “Ditzy DeVos” because she bought her position in the Cabinet.
26
Once again, the so-called patriots of our country choose to create schools for profit rather than fix those that are public by paying for better teachers, or books, or upgrading buildings so that this great American tradition will continue as it was intended. The trend toward charter schools seems to have begun as a favorite of certain Rs from Benno Schmidt to Neal Bush to Ditsy, among the many. In fact, one could probably ask any R publican about whether they were against or pro, and they'd be pro-charter. Their definition is that poor people should be able to have choice for their children as those with means do. In Texas, charters take from public educaton, need to be overseen by the state agency which does this, adding to the overall budgetary costs, and have histories of failure and other shenigans. Another great idea from the Republicans.
2
For-Profit and Not-for-Profit are systems for how the income for a corporation is distributed: To owners (shareholders) or directors/managers.
That distinction should make no difference in determining whether a college should be investigated for malfeasance.
That's what DeVos' plan is to do: Investigate ALL, not just some based on their corporate structure.
Fake education ...
3
Oh the dirty Republican Work that’s being done behind the smokescreen of this reality TV administration and it’s daily tweets, lies and bullyings!
4
I don't want to be a party pooper, but for heaven's sake who would try to get into one of these schools with all the bad publicity of late. I mean this DeVevil person has been in the press pushing these for profit dumbing down schools for 2 years now. Now that I think about it, who would believe her?
Oh God, almost forgot. Anyone that watches Fox News. Sorry.
3
DeVos is clueless. I think that is pretty clear. She is there to help the rich get richer and she is there to help the GOP destroy minorities who are likely Democrat voters.
11
Small wonder that Trump remarked about loving the uneducated.
Small wonder that Trump put Betsy DeVos in a position to generate more of them.
7
As a Michiganian, I know more about DeVos than all the Fox News people combined know about Denmark. She is a plutocratic theocrat [or theocratic plutocrat] who believes that if you are rich, you must be both virtuous and smart; and if you are religious, you know what is best for everyone's children, and that ain't public schools or policing against fraud in the private educational sector.
26
The fleecing of Americans...brought to you by your president. He is an all consuming all contaminating swamp.
9
Betsy DeVos is the epitome of the outcome of kakistocrisy. Clearly as dumb as a box of rocks. Easily manipulated. And greedy. Went to school with lots of Betsy DeVos’. None of the were born rich so they aren’t running the DOE. But they couldn’t do any worse.
4
I guess this means the president can reopen Trump University again...in Moscow.
6
Gail, I’m glad you’re starting to add some links in your column. But you’ve got a ways to go. This assertion, for example:
“The guy who’s supposed to be overseeing fraud investigations is a former dean of a for-profit named DeVry University, which paid $100 million to settle a lawsuit over misleading marketing tactics.”
Who’s “the guy”? Why not provide a link to info on the $100m settlement, so we know it as a fact instead of simply a gruesomely entertaining anecdote? (“Anecdote” being just one step closer to verified fact than “urban legend”).
3
@Marc Grobmanhttps://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/08/julian-schmoke-for...
Simple google search .... of course I graduated from a state that funds public education.
3
Maybe DeVos can run the for profit education industry like her family’s Amway multi-level Ponzi scheme business. After you get your worthless diploma, you then get 10 friends to enroll in that school and each is required to pay a percentage of your outstanding loans. Then each of those people would sign up ten more people who also would pay a percentage of your loans (and so on) until you are completely debt free.
On the downside, you would still remain unemployable but at least you would have plenty of company.
9
See, I told you in your much earlier survey that DeVos was the worst Cabinet member. The only thing we can do now to be certain she sails off the edge of the flat earth in one of her yachts is to vote in November and throw as many of the bums out as we can.
4
It’s truly astonishing, and truly tragic that it seems everyone connected with the trump I.e. family members, gop - are thieves, thugs, incompetent cretins and apparently their only goal is to ruin our country. And boy are they doing a good job of it.
3
Great hit piece, Gail. Deserves to be placed in Ripley's museum.
2
DeVos and DeVry. C'mon, Gail, you're making this up!
1
God Save America - and I mean that. This impacts your children - I'm going off topic here - put everything together and God Save the World from America. Or perhaps he should Save the Democrats...and that's what will save your country and everyone else's. I ache to cross the border - to go west again....but until your leader is gone, I won't. It's a moral thing.
5
DeVos is to education what cancer is to health. Either she is a complete know-nothing promoted way beyond her abilities or she believes that dumbing down America is the only way to keep the GOP in power. There are good arguments for both.
4
The PAIN that is Betsy DeVos. She causes pain, that’s her “ job “.
How dare you poor people think that you deserve an education, without being scammed. This is NOT a Socialist Country, with free or low cost higher education provided to just anyone. NO, in this Country you must pay, and suffer. You must pay for the education you receive in exactly what it means to be cheated, to believe the Wild promises, the glossy brochures, the slick Videos. No matter that nearly ALL of these for profit “ schools “ will lead to to a minimum wage Job, if you’re lucky. As for that pesky debt, why not just ask a Family member for a loan ???
You could always get a Job cleaning yachts or mansions. OR, even better, become a Job Creator. Start selling Amway.
11
Betsy is well tailored - I mean for a Grifter.
Holland, Michigan — DeVos and No Hope College...
Thank you, Donald, may I have another.
1
the country is being run by professional grifters -
8
There is nothing lighthearted about any of this. Humor is not appropriate while we’re in the throes of the demise of our democracy. As someone whose family is committed to free public education this is a terrible situation that shouldn’t be made light of.
1
Just a little known fact here: Harvard University's endowment is larger than the entire US Treasury, it's the largest tranche of money in the nation. All those successful graduates have been leaving it massive amounts of cash over the years, and while it does sport nice facilities and renowned teachers, all that other money is just being invested and multiplied in their coffers, but price of admission to Harvard is still obscenely expensive and we don't see all that cash used for full scholarships to more deserving students than they admit now. Despite their ability to do so, they cling to their exclusivity and dollars.
5
"a good-paying position"
Oh, Gail, not you, too. Please don't do this, especially in a piece about education!
2
The Blue Whales swim through the ocean, the largest creatures that ever lived. They open their mouths to filter thousands of gallons of water and tons of krill at a time, tiny creatures, millions of whom go to feed the Blue Whale's appetite, and the whale sees them as nothing but fodder, with no regard for their tiny lives.
Betsy DeVos, the Trump White House, Trump himself, and the particularly virulent brand of billionaire he likes to associate with, see the American people, and "little people" around the world the way that Blue Whale sees the krill. They are to be devoured, deprived of everything, solely to feed the hunger for "MORE!!!!"
The big difference is that the Blue Whale MUST devour krill to survive. Clearly, Betsy DeVos doesn't need multiple yachts to survive. Nor does Donald Trump need to cheat students and small towns around the world (Can you say "Ossining, New York", home of Trump's northern Westchester golf course, which, he claims is only worth $1.5 million?).
No, they do it because they can, believe they are the modern landed gentry, and everyone else is a serf in thrall to them, deserving no consideration at all.
An executive branch led by grifters, filling courts with sympathetic judges, protected by a spineless Congress terrified of less than 1/4 of the people who believe fanatically what they are told, even if they can see the reality.
How did we get here and can our Republic be saved?
10
As Fla Voter, I hold Senator Marco Rubio responsible for this fiasco. I also content that the press , NYT included, need to be persistent in asking Senator Rubio what he will do going forward to change the direction of this runaway train.
Sec DeVos was a huge contributor to Senator Rubio's "since I can't be President, Mitch wants me to play Senator again" re-election campaign. Senator Rubio then was a deciding vote on Sec DeVos's confirmation. The voters of Fla were against DeVos, but Senator Rubio supported his financial benefactor against the will of his constituents.
The current " school teacher tuition debt forgiveness " fiasco is a case in point. Granted, if began under the prior administration, Senator Rubio has the ability to push Sec Devos on this as well as the other issues such as sham college debt forgiveness ,
I beg the NYT , The Washington Post, Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times to please shine a light on my Senator's need to lead on this issue. I won't be easy, as he has the gift of being an adept issue ducker, but please try.
Thank you
8
There is no shame in this administration. Couple that with there is little or no intelligence and integrity in this administration and you have the perfect storm of the unvarnished belief that all greed is good.
5
@Matthew
“... to whatever this editorial is about “
Perhaps if you understood the piece before firing off this scattergun of distraction you would be less ... random.
2
Gail,
Thank you for spotlighting the evil deeds of DeVos.
Now her brother is moving into scene!
With all the bombs and fireworks going on all around us, it's easy to let slip the real damage being done by Trump and his incompetent and devious ilk.
2
The TV and print journalists are focused on the clown show while the Trump administration implements it's real revolution and state deconstruction right before our eyes.
10
You are correct, Gail. Attention must be paid. Every day our heads are whipped around from one awful story about this presidency to another. Our heads are spinning. Eventually, our eyes rest on DeVos, as villainous as Cruella De Vil, just missing her fur piece for the photo op. But she is only one of the many villains wrecking their way through this country. I think it would behoove the NYT and all newspapers to create a weekly column listing each piece of harm being inflicted on this country by this administration. Such facts, though they lack the attention-grabbing lure of the President’s outrageous tweets, need to be repeated over again and again.
7
Make Trump University Great Again!
1
Betsy's master plan is to apply Amway business principles to the US education system.
Get a bank loan to finance $10k worth of home study materials and store them in your garage while you attempt to enroll friends and neighbors in your entrepreneurial college educational system. If you recruit 10 students, you become a "Dean," and may now keep 1.75% of sales income for yourself. Bump enrollment up to 20 and you earn coveted "Chancellor" status entitling you to purchase your next $10k in curriculum guides for challenging Devos academic programs in such courses as "Arithmetic" and "Speling." Your efforts will also earn you the opportunity to purchase your next batch of BDU text books (up front) at only 29% interest.
When, if ever, at least one of your students is issued a diploma ($250 fee), you will receive a complimentary, plastic, 8x10 lawn sign declaring your home an official branch of DeVos University as well as a cardboard image of a smiling Betsy at the helm of one of her floating palaces. Once you are totally bankrupt, Devos will repossess the mildewed pile of garbage moldering in your garage and toss them in a nearby mountain stream at no extra charge.
4
In the Bible, Jesus gravitates instinctively to the poor and disadvantaged because they are the most in need of help and succor.
In “GOP World” evangelical billionaires like Betsy DeVos also gravitate instinctively to the poor, but only because they are the easiest to fleece,
14
Against my better angels ......from 1999 to 2007 I was a nursing instructor at various proprietary schools in Ct.......
These schools do not serve their students or screen potential students for ability to comprehend the difficult subject matter.
Many of my students had unsuccessful high school careers. Many were GED prepared .
Some were substsnce abusers in rehab.
Others had police records, others were in abusive relationships,many were single moms on medicaid.
Others were ready to learn and had potential,but thru ignorance of the system ,ended up in a program twice or three times the cost of a state school or votech school LPN/ RN program.
These students were given “boiler room” presentations similar to a “ timeshare spiel” by” admission counselors” who were actually sales associates required to meet a daily quota of signatories to student loan programs.
The outcome for many of these young adults and second career middle-aged students left them with debt they would never be able to pay back and no diplomas because they couldn’t do the required studying and failed miserably at testing.
We were encouraged to curve grades up so everyone passed.
Many instructors and program chairs resigned because of pressure from school directors to misrepresent the program outcomes.
Betsy Devos is despicable but supportive of her cronies in this incredibly unethical multi- billion dollar industry.
I suggest the Times do an expose on proprietary schools ,which came into existence in the 1930’s
7
I think the answer to the riddle of Betsy DeVos lies in this fact via Snopes: the DeVos family has donated $20,200,000 to the Republican Party and its candidates and PACs. She has essentially bought her cabinet seat to do what she wants to.
9
There are meaty issues to be covered regarding education. Continued snide comments about DeVos’ wealth and purported intelligence strike me as sexist, mean and unnecessary. Let’s stick with the issues at hand.
3
@Elyse
Such as Mrs DeVos not knowing the core mission of The Department of Education when being questioned in Congress? Or the stock responses (that said nothing) also given in the same meeting?
6
Remember this in November: The GOP Congress approved of every one of these unqualified, disastrous, cabinet members. Vote them out!
18
Greedy incompetence comes in a number of guises. DeVos is emblematic in this regard. Ergo, she's a perfect fit for Trump.
2
Thank you Gail Collins for the laughs and for exposing that former Trump U employees are being hired by Betsy DeVos.
I am speechless
2
Pure corruption, zero pretense of working for American children. What a disgrace, and typical of this administration to the core.
11
As the saying goes, "birds of a feather flock together".
Gail Collins, dog lover extraordinaire, always makes me think of warm fuzzies and wet noses. Except today.
Seeing “Bane” and “DeVos” in the same heading punched me with the memory of Bane the Presa Canario, an enormous dog that was loving and affectionate to his family, the Knollers, but had the urge to eat lesser individuals alive. Eventually, he did, and a lovely young woman named Diane Whipple was killed in the hallway of her apartment building.
Why is this relevant? It isn’t. Except that Betsy DeVos is just like Bane. She protects her own, and if the lives of others are destroyed, so what? In her grand scheme of things, they just don’t matter.
3
If you are interested in a piece of fiction that speaks to the issue of scam schools and student debt, consider Grishams "Rooster Bar". A good distraction from the horrors of Trump's cabinet of thieves and oligarchs.
Will there ever be a day when leaders and deciders in Washington do what's best for the general population instead of enriching the rich?
DeVos is essentially saying to those desperate for a stale piece of bread: "Let them eat cake!"
How can a person of modest means read this stuff and still support Republican grifters? How?
11
How many yachts?
Why do people vote for politicians who gut public education? I'll never figure that out but they do over and over. And then there is the stupidity of talking about grizzlies in a confirmation hearing. Road to this administration: Make big donations to the people confirming you. Just remember Ms. Betsy only got in because Pope Pence had to come in and vote because of a tie. She is not that ignorant....she just makes sure her yacht flies the flag of the Cayman Island so she won't get taxed or inspected! America first my foot. Children first...not on her watch.
10
She flies the flag of the Cayman Islands, yet the sons and daughters of this country who have to join the military because the worthless degrees that DeVos foisted upon them.
They lay down their lives for this country yet when at the first sign of trouble DeVos and her swamp partners are sailing off to the Cayman Islands
10
Look, the point is that these white people are scared to death that they will be in the minority soon. The really wealthy ones have been doing everything in their power (New Southern Strategy) to make sure that only wealthy white children get an education so they can keep the "rest" of Americans "in their place" like they were before 1861.
Educated people, obviously, would never elect a trump or permit a devos anywhere near the reins of power. As trump so wonderfully stated, "(he) loves the under-educated." It doesn't take a genius to understand why. There is no cure for this malaise except at the ballot box.
VOTE, or lose the America you live in now.
5
Wake up country! Betsy DeVos, the US Secretary of Education has no college education/degree in Education!
How our country is allowing this woman to steer the education of our children and grandchildren is criminal.
Trump’s got things just where he wants them. Cronies to head his lunatic agenda, make a selfish profit for themselves - and nobody has the guts to do anything about it or stop it.
10
Agreed. Agreed. Agreed. Next step: November elections and Democratic/democratic legislative reform of student loans and real education oversight. This should not be an issue subject to the vagaries of a deplorable Cabinet appointment. Student loan debt now represents a lifetime under the burden of poor policy and greed. A-greed?
5
We can criticize DeVos and Trump all we want, but none of this would have happened without a wall of Republican Trump enablers, who installed her even in the face of her uninformed answers at her hearing (probably most Republicans couldn't tell how uninformed the answers were since they don't know much about education either).
50 Republicans plus Mike Pence voted to confirm DeVos, every single Democrat voted to oppose her.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/01/31/us/politics/trump-cabinet...
28
Thirty years ago after my husband abandoned me and our children I was lucky enough to be accepted into a job training program.
It was a public/private partnership. The program paid my trade school tuition and child care and if I got a job within 90 days of completing the program the state reimbursed the program for the cost of my training.
I got a job within 30 days. My first job only paid 9k a year but eventually I worked my way up to ten times that amount and more than reimbursed the state for their investment in me with all of the taxes I paid over the years.
I would like to see more of this type of training program.
25
Our founding fathers declared that in order for our democratic republic to survive and prosper, a well educated populus is required and that a public education system was needed to provide that education to all ... not a few. Slaves were denied an education so that they would not be able to understand what they were being subjected to or become "intelligent", develop critical thinking, and become communicative enough to cause a problem. A competent universal public education system that instills positive social norms, critical thinking, reading, communications, arithmetic, and other democratic republic survival skills is absolutely required, especially now.
B. DeVos, and those in the government - local and federal - appear to be following a nation-destructive script that is going to cause the population of this nation to be living as functionally illiterate, unthinking sheep, and impotent to realize what has happened to them. It has happened already in some states and localities.
13
Gail, I’m all in there with you about for-profit colleges and even many charter schools But as a former high-school humanities and foreign language teacher, I despair over the superficial public school systems‘ data-driven over-testing that reduces knowledge into bits of information that can be mastered in multiple-choice tests. Student performance on these tests control the funding of their teachers’ salaries. Any child “left behind” is cited as reason to financially punish his or her school.
Private and charter schools can offer a more rounded, diverse education with classes concentrating on deep exploration of ideas as well as facts. Creative teachers can enhance the curriculum with ancillary readings and discussion. I taught Shakespeare’s plays alongside modern literature that dealt with the same issues, but in ways the students could more easily relate to. I once put Lady MacBeth on trial instead of giving a formal written test.
I left the public system because my freedom to teach was increasingly curtailed with extra testing and mindless administrative busywork. I believe that there is a place for charter schools and would gladly teach at one. Charters can offer an environment for children whose families can’t afford private school. That doesn’t mean abandoning public schools. It means giving parents more choices for a quality education and providing enough money for everybody.
The problem is how to determine “quality,”
2
For those of us who have lived in Michigan for most of our lives, we have seen the havoc that the DeVos family has wreaked on our state. Our once great state is no longer. Gone are our quality public education, our roads and bridges, our pristine water supplies, and the list goes on. As the result of the DeVos's political meddling, we are a state in which all three branches of Michigan government are controlled by Republicans. In total control, they have systematically destroyed everything that made this a great place to live, work, and raise a family.
It is a sad tale that is not playing out over the rest of the country.
27
As a 30 year, retired, university professor, this situation is intolerable! For profit higher education is in business to maximize profits period. I am most knowledgeable of for profit schools that target the active duty, retired, and veteran population to steal their GI Bill. Most of these programs have slick promotional ads and "counselors" whose primary goals are to get the student to sign on the line and charge them high tuition for "convenience." Ads show the student putting their kids to bed after a long day at work and then sitting down at their computer to complete course assignments. Too many of these students believe that purchasing an education is like buying a consumer good--you pay your money and the school is obligated to give you a good grade. I have had students meet with me and tell me they were working, had a family, volunteered at the fire department, and could not understand why they were required to sit out a semester for poor performance!
The Dept of Education, under DeVos and Trump are simply allowing these for-profit firms to rip off students and not provide any avenue for redress. It is a "caveat-emptor" situation and if these students cannot see they are being taken, then that is the students' faults. Firms are free to laugh all the way to the bank and the students' are left holding huge student loans with nothing to show for it!
12
Trump has always been the king of the con and the scam so it's certainly no surprise that he surrounds himself with people who think and do the same. What's so disgusting is that they continue to get away with it. Is there nothing wealthy people can do that will ever result in their having to take responsibility for their destructive behavior?
11
A remarkable example of how dedicated public school teachers can affect their students' lives for the good is Connecticut's current candidate for Congress..Jahana Hayes. Thanks to her teachers , she was encouraged to stay in school as a pregnant teen in the projects. Her teachers were good mentors who saw her potential and urged her to stay in school.
After continuing her education, she decided to become a teacher herself and go back to her old school to do for others what was done for her. After being voted "Teacher of the Year" and honored at the White House by President Obama, she is now running for Congress. We don't need Betsy De Vos to oversee education, we need someone like Jahana Hayes, who really cares about the kids.
18
Republicans at every level have run on shrinking government and cutting taxes for decades. They have no interest in federal leadership on any issues save defense and border protection which they routinely conflate. Trump is the inevitable opportunist that fills the vacuum created and destroys the fragile architecture of self governance which requires enlightened effort and is often imperfect.
The only answer is to destroy the party from which this abomination arose, and start over with a healthy and diverse governing coalition that actually embraces the difficult and messy task at hand. Vote!
6
@John
What seems to be happening is a good education is only for the "Elites" of which Mr Trump is one.
The problem with that is there are so many intelligent folk who do not have access to a good education. That's a disservice to a country such as what the U.S. was designed to be and that's really sad.
1
Another great opinion piece, Ms. Collins. Keep shining the light -- eventually we'll open our eyes to the disgraces the Trump disaster.
7
What is wrong with people like DeVos and Trump? No matter how much money they have, they want more. Is it a hoarding disease or an empty spot they just can't fill? She's willing to abet the cheating of vulnerable people who are trying to better themselves, kicking people who are down. It's heartbreaking that they are in our government.
11
As it happens, there is a 100 percent certain method to evaluate whether a proposed reform in education is any good.
Look to see if any of the politicians, reformers, or interested parties are sending their OWN CHILDREN to the schools under reform. If they are, the reform ought be given at least a modicum of respect.
But, if the reformers are shielding their children from their proposed changes, then those reforms are scams to exploit and pacify the proletariat. And they ain’t worth a bucket of warm spit.
Looking at you, Betsy
6
"No civilized country would pay for education out of real estate taxes. That would mean a poor kid wouldn't get a decent education. That's immoral and stupid!
Why do you pay Federal taxes when you push healthcare off onto employers and your taxes don't pay for education or infrastructure?"
An overseas friend.
16
Another excellent, enjoyable column by Gail Collins. However, not mentioned is a major motivation for Betsy DeVoss to gut public education. The public schools teach that godless evolution stuff.
9
Another word for the kind of greed that covets money at the totsl expense of ethics is mercenary. The story of the student who couldn't get a job with her useless for-profit degree and wound up in the army with over 100,000 in debt is a cautionary tale raising other suspicions. Devos's brother Eric Prince has been makkng the rounds touting his plan to privatize the current war effort in Afghanistan. So maybe his sister is hoping to supply his Blackwater workforce of mercenaries. Or maybe they're both just old-fashioned robber barons and war profiteers.
11
Junk degrees, exploitation of innocent people trying to better themselves, false promises of job placements, diplomas that have no worth: Is that a bargain or what? The antidote to DeVos & Co. and their bottles of snake oil is a credible and accessible (affordable) higher education program which can and should be in the works. Tuition-free community colleges are running now in some states. A beginning.
Let the loyal opposition begin using imagination and work for a well-funded educational system that frees students from frightening debt. The FTC and FCC should monitor the TV ads of for-profits and inform them and their agencies who produce the misleading ads that they are subject to fines and prosecution. Treat the lures like tobacco ads.
8
This is all part of Trump's plan to be anointed Supreme Leader by keeping the populace uneducated and undereducated. He already let this tactic slip during the campaign when he said "I love the poorly educated."
11
45 has to go in 2020 before the damage his Cabinet is inflicting on us is too far gone to repair. Let’s start with the House in November. Please vote!
146
Sarcasm can only soothe the troubled soul so much; our body politic needs major surgery.
All of my children are burdened to some degree with educational debt which in fact should be the next to last thing any civilized culture should foist on its citizenry, medical expense being the first.
Until we all wake up to the fact society exists in order to serve all and not just a few we will continue our downward spiral into the reality which befalls every less than honest political order.
How does any person, given the fact that person has a semblance of wit, expect anyone to survive let alone prosper when incurred with such staggering debt? By extension how does that society survive?
It doesn't.
Now, if you will excuse me, I have to cut off my nose.
9
Jokes and chuckles and editorial humor. Can we stop giggling about what is happening to this country? The entertainment value of keeping this administration going is significant and a lot of people enjoy the show. Think they will vote to end the fun in 2020? Please stop making fun of it all.
1
Betsy is a patsy for the for-profit cheating institutions masquerading a educational educations. She may be the bane of people wanting value for their easy-to-get loans but hard to pay when they end up without any useful or credible degrees. Might as well have mailed in for a fake degree somewhere. If Betsy is the bane of those who want value for money, she works for a boss who seems to have gone bananas, has a for-profit killing company looking to take over the war in Afghanistan with the taxpayers paying for the reincarnated Blackwater Company discredited after employees playing soldier were recorded as shooting too many innocents in woeful wars. I hope the Blue Wave washes over the family yachts.
7
Please oh please don't get rid of De Vos. She's making my job as a 60-something civil servant more secure. Because I know that under her aegis our educational system is going to sink so low that none of its products can possibly replace me...
5
Re: your grandson
Work, smork! Who cares if he gets a job. He’ll have a mind and with it the resourcefulness to find work. Anyone who goes to college merely to get from point A to point B is, well, missing the point. It’s all the other stuff that gives a college education its value.
4
Trump and the Republicans love poorly educated people. They get a lot of support there. Educated people tend to be more liberal. It was probably only to be expected that Trump would pick some unqualified person like DeVos to run the education department into the ground.
12
This is just one example of how this administration is probably the most corrupt this country has experienced. I wasn't real happy with Bush-Cheney, but I understand Grant's was real bad, so maybe this is only the worst in 150 years.
Another pertinent story the Times should consider is how our Commerce Secretary has profited handsomely from recent trade agreements and the tariff war he and Trump have engineered. Seems a few companies he forgot to divest himself from have done quite well. An example would be that South Korean steel company he has a stake in, which is not subject to our new steel tariffs do to our side deal with S.Korea. How convenient.
I heard Wilbur Ross is also doing some trading. I figured someone would have to be shorting and profiting off the outbursts by our President on this commodity or that needing tariffs.
11
Ms Betsy is so wealthy and principled that us little folks fail to recognize her opulence and character. Notice how I didn’t mention anything about her intelligence and/or compassion. If it’s possible, and I think it is...President Trump met his “soulmate” when he met Betsy. Too bad for us that it wasn’t on the set of “The Man With Two Brains.” It would have been so much safer that way.
3
Money doesn't buy happiness, or, in this case, common decency.
12
Philosophy, at an accredited school, would be a better choice as a major than any STEM curriculum. As Orin Hatch seeks to increase the non-immigrant H1B Visa program from 80,000/year to 180,000/year, many more American students will be precluded from employment based on salaries and job numbers.
Go ahead, major in Science and Technology. then wallow in your debt.
As a Philosophy major, perhaps you'll be able to make sense out of this educational scam-for-profit run by Devos and our disturbing Senate?
12
This piece points out how terrible the Dems are at campaigning. All the things Obama and the Dems did to try and protect, or at least provide some justice for Joe/Jane America never made it to their lips.
All the positives always get shouted down by the Repubs who know how to shout really well. While the Dems just stand there being polite...trying not to look scared. (like HRC at that debate with Trump stalking her)
Take notice incumbent and new comer Dems, if you cant loudly speak up the positives of your party, and denigrate the negatives of the competition - get out of the race!
12
Trump hires these people, who come in with their own agenda, and since he doesn't have one...they are free to move around the cabin. It will take years to erase, overcome, fix, or patch up the damage caused by these self serving zealots...
8
Bernie Sanders hit the nail squarely on the head when he asked Betsy DeVos at her Senate confirmation hearing:
"Do you think, if you were not a multi-billionaire, if your family had not made hundreds of millions of dollars of contributions to the Republican Party, that you would be sitting here today?”
31
DeVos's actions of revoking the minimum employability standards make no sense. These for-profit colleges serve no public purpose. They are a scourge - preying on youth who have the misfortune of growing up in poor and lower middle class households where access to a good education was unavailable. Now, these "higher education" institutions and their shareholders seize to take advantage by using the system of federally and taxpayer subsidized student loans (easy money) to further exploit this population - who now are far worse off than even those who lost their homes in the subprime mortgage crises. These homeowners at least shared the risk with the lenders when the value of their homes fell below the cost of them. These students must bear the burden themselves.
Ultimately, America pays as the cycle of poverty continues while the DeVoses and their ilk sail in their decadence, pausing to fund the PACs that keep them there.
3
Mulvaney is doing the same for payday lenders, Pruitt busied himself making sure those who didn't end up in debtor's prison died of poisoning, and Zinke is destroying public lands and turning what's left over to the fossilists. I'm sure I've left some out. Oh, yes, Wilber Ross is crushing labor, with help from Roberts and Gorsuch. A gen-u-wine "populist" administration, yessiree. As Charles Pierce so often says, "all the best people" will never not be funny. Except that the joke is on us all, and it's tough to laugh through constant tears. November 6.
12
I have been a professor in some of those [for profit[ universities. They are a complete fraud.
The DA of one University fired me because I was putting pressure to the students to read their assignments before they came to class, and had told them that I was going to administer quizzes before every class to make sure they read the material: "We are paper university" he told me in the firing. And he was not quidding.
The university require "a paper" in every course, and the students delivered very low quality work, not even fulfilling the minimum requirements: they were only interested in getting the "A" and the "degree" the key to high salaries; so they think.
It is a subculture of "I come to class, I pay the university, I deserve an "A" and a degree." It is sad how they willingly fall in the trap.
The end result is that they acquire a worthless expensive decorative paper to hang in their homes
12
Some of the for profits have changed their tax designations as non profit. Most have not changed the success ratio their graduates will have in the market place. Nor their curriculum.
It's time to regulate their t.v. ads that promise good jobs.
5
US citizens have repeatedly voted for members of Congress whose governing philosophy is to formulate laws to allow corporations to profit at the expense of citizens. It's done in the It's been this way since Reagan & our citizens get what they vote for.
32
@June, The restoration of slavery will be complete when workers pay corporations for jobs.
3
It is really hard for me to see what the end goal here might be. I don't think producing an increasingly poorly educated population will improve things for the rich, so why is it being done? Is it possible that "Ditzy Devos" has not thought about where we are headed?
17
@HM It's an updated version of the Protestant ethic, the idea that God bestows His grace upon those who are more deserving, true believers. And the poor, with their immoral ways, simply deserve a life of indentured servitude. Let them live in penury, working at McJobs like Walmart or Amway or, if they're young and desperate enough, they can join the military and die for Devos' cronies in the military industrial complex.
In a nutshell, that's how Devos and her rich "Christian" ilk see things.
@HM: The writings of many dictators contain the strategy of keeping folks poor and stupid as a means of perpetuating their power and control. Expect to see doctoral theses soon on topics like "Grand Theft Auto", "Honey BooBoo" and "Professional" wrestling, all ghost written by my dog. The next successful campaign slogan may turn out to be "I'm with stupid".
The end game here is the fact that an increasingly ignorant population is far easier to control than an educated one.
1
America's problem is that most people have no concept of education other than as a kind of work-training, an utterly utilitarian view. Of course, it's not just education. It's just about everything. Which is why DeVos and her brother Eric can thrive here. What used to be "sport," for example, and fun, is now a career track, and every second on an NBA court is monetized. So, which track, son? NBA or MBA? While I don't claim to be well-educated, I'm aware that such a state exists and that I can aspire to it. And I'm happily aware that education is a life-long process.
8
The only purpose of a business is to generate profits for the owner/shareholder and that's fine. Profits are grown by cutting costs and maximizing revenus, and that's not fine in fields like education, healthcare, justice/prison and the social safety net.
Unlike other goods and services, the free market doesn't work in those "markets" because the consumer can't choose to do without and is assured he will get the lowest quality service the supplier can get away with: worthless diplomas, coverage limited or denied and prisons as warehouses with little or no rehabilitation efforts.
55
One can only live on one yacht at a time. Yet the wealthy sycophants who inhabit the people's government never seem to have enough stuff for themselves. Some day enough citizens in Florida and Ohio will be able to solve the amway pyramid and work toward freedom from anxiety at the cost of education and health care - unfortunately that will require a good public education system, and presently there is no time for that when our "public servants" are unmoored, busy dodging taxes on one of nine yachts in the Cayman Islands.
28
@John Quixote - I agree that the previous head of Amway should be in prison rather than being free to control transferring costsI of education from poor students to extremely wealthy people who control expense of education but provide not services to educate the people who are paying this expense. I have recently seen some recent very appropriate recommendations in decreasing inappropriate jailing of people with very little reason for being jailed but my opinion is that many of Trumps high ranking supporters have strong reasons they belong in jail.
16
This entire issue has gotten much too little coverage, so thank you. I think to make people more aware of it, it might be time for a movie - maybe by the makers of Best in Show. Can’t think of a snappy title - School Daze already taken. And Parker posey as Betsy de Vil.
29
And "Back to School" sales are in full swing along with fundraisers for teachers who now need to buy their own classroom supplies, texts, and even paint their own classrooms. $92 million savings from the ill-conceived military parade would be a good start toward saving our public schools.
784
@DCBinNYC
How about the $12billion "oops" payment to farmers?
3
@DCBinNYC
The other day we took my wife’s grandaughter to fourth grade orientation, along with two packs of notebook paper, pencils, wet wipes and Kleenex which went into cupboards and drawers for class use during the year. While it wasn’t a burden for us, I could see it as a burden or cause of shame for others.
3
One of the first and best things I learned as a Philosophy major was how to recognize fallacious arguments, the likes of which are directed at consumers and citizens every hour of every day.
I learned how to recognize red herrings, straw men, ad hominem attacks, false dichotomies, and false appeals to a host of things. Even if people are not interested in a liberal arts degree, they can benefit from knowing how to recognize and counter the most common fallacies directed at them. Armed with this recognition, we can all withstand and fight back against the current climate of lies and diversions.
As a place to start I would recommend "With Good Reason", by S. Morris Engel. It is fun to read and work with, and I recommend that everyone give it as a gift to someone they care about.
Not to mention that it is a lot cheaper than a De Vos-protected, private, expensive, and useless "education".
74
@maggie
Critical Thinking is good and should be applied to all things in life as a litmus test.
4
I have a long term email exchange with a friend who is constantly telling me that Trump supporters love what he does. I find it hard to believe that these voters even know what he and his Cabinet have been doing and in how many ways they are undermining these voters and their search for a “middle class” life.
No cure for ignorance if you don’t read.
894
@B. Rothman "No cure for ignorance if you don't read.". Indeed. There is no cure for ignorance if people believe Dear Leader's screech about the news being fake or that DeVos and the rest of the "administration" cares about the country and the people within.
2
@B. Rothman
BdV: MADA
@B. Rothman or CAN'T read like trump.
1
Well, thank goodness for Congressional oversight!
556
@gratis They only ant to investigate Dems.
My husband and I were fortunate enough to be able to provide for our two children, a debt free college education, and we were by no means, among the wealthy elite of this country. When they graduated from college, in the 1980s, a number of their friends commented to me how lucky they were. This involved a lot sacrifice by us and our kids, including no fancy and expensive spring break trips.
Just this week, while we are all together on a family vacation, my son commented that his goal is to get my two grandchildren, now 10 and 13, through college without saddling them with crippling debt.
People like de vos, are nothing but predators, as are most of trump’s appointees. Draining the swamp? More like filling it.
1019
@KLKemp Oh, they’re draining the swamp alright. Of every penny, nickel dime, dollar and benjamin they can find.....
3
@KLKemp My single mom put my sister and me through college in the 80s on a public school teacher's salary, and the fact that I started my adult life debt-free has made all the difference in my freedom to choose the jobs and life that I wanted. The thought that Americans are spending hard-earned funds and sometimes unwittingly wasting it on education credentials that will gain themselves and their children nothing but debt appalls me.
2
@KLKemp
Yes, and stocking the swamp with alligators and piranhas.
3
Today is a day I cannot find humor in the Trump misadministration. On principle, I don't like to see Trump calling women names (or anyone else). But one pattern in Trump world is that he denigrates those he works with and they come back for more. You would have thought that Sen. Cruz would not have forgotten or forgiven Trump's insults of his father and his wife, among the insults of himself. Or that Lindsey Graham would remember the various insults that Trump heaped on him as well as on Sen. McCain, supposedly his best friend. But then Cruz has dinner with Trump and Graham plays golf with him.
There is no sense of dignity or self respect or decency in Trump world. There is certainly no room for an education that goes deeper than a fraudulent school which can be monetized or where the students can be left with a legacy of debt and broken promises.
Trump can shoot someone on Fifth Avenue, and his supporters would still vote for him.
Trump can destroy the entire USA, conspire with Putin, collapse houses over the heads of his supporters, and wreak havoc and ruin on their families, health, schools, air and water. They don't care. They will worship at his altar.
The cost of their education is the annihilation of all American values.
1088
Yeah. They wanted change.
1
@smb
Mahatma Gandhi said “ Remember that all through history, there have always been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they seem invincible. But in they end, they always fall. Always.”
I repeat that a lot, lately. It helps.
6
@smb Of course they come back for more...
more money via corruption, more power to enact bigotry.
Money and power are all.
1
Why are you so hard on Betsy DeVos?
Success Academy Charter CEO Eva Moskowitz worked tirelessly to convince the American public that Betsy DeVos was the Secretary of Education that America needed. Moskowitz' praised DeVos as a terrific choice and demanded that the Senate vote to confirm DeVos. And if you can't trust the word of charter CEO Eva Moskowitz, then who can you trust? I think the American public owes a debt of gratitude to Eva Moskowitz for working so tirelessly to make sure Betsy DeVos was confirmed.
1
Just wondering who has read fewer books: Betsy or Donald.
46
Anyone caught 'monetizing; their position in office or after will get to lose their key to the West Wing toilets. And will not get invited to the big guy's birthday bash at Mar El Lago.
4
If Ms. DeVos is a billionaire, that's great. It takes a lot of money to fight the teachers' unions, who have a pretty impressive record themselves for stealing taxpayer money and getting away with it. Karen Lewis of the Chicago Teachers' Union and her friend, union shill Diane Ravitch have gotten very rich, so personal net worth is irrelevant to whatever this editorial is about.
Most charters are non-profits. Even if they are for-profit like Sears or Walgreens, that's irrelevant, too. Corporate profit margins are typically around 6%, and public schools have to report something that is very similar to profits--i.e. "changes in net position."
Why is only DeVos getting so much heat ? Obama did nothing about the student loan crisis. Clinton made student loans non-dischargeable in bankruptcy, and Hillary continued to tell the kids -- go to college and don't worry about the debt.
2
@Matthew
Therefore, we should just sit back and accept it.
1
There started being new restrictions on how to discharge student loans through the 90s, but it became effectively impossible in 2005. G. W. Bush was president the. Not Clinton.
These are basic facts that you can get from a google search. When you trip up on simple things like this, it really undermines the credibility of the rest of your argument.
9
@Matthew
If you don't know why DeVos is getting so much heat, I have a rifle to sell you to protect yourself from grizzly bears in Wyoming. That response alone should have settled any question about her qualifications to serve as Secretary of Education.
1
Gail thanks for the news! I was about to sign up at DeVos College for their exciting degree program in yacht cleaning. Now I realize that my best option is to start my own college and give myself a degree. This will save a lot of time and money. It will get me going on a profitable and respected career in education!
46
@Harpo: Indeed, and make it a seminary too so you can ordain yourself and reap the benefits of tax shelters and religious freedom. It wouldn't hurt to throw in a minor in "journalism" in case Fox is looking for more on screen talent.
2
The obvious solution to Betsy DeVos is to follow the Constitution, abolish the federal Department of Education, and return the responsibility of teaching back to the states.
6
@Charles
As a parent of a special needs child, I need to point out to you that the U.S. Department of Education is tasked with enforcing the federal law, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which is essential to ensure that all children with disabilities are educated. Your suggestion would throw our community to the wolves of local special interests who would not want to "waste" funds on our kids. It's hard enough to live our lives. Please don't make it harder.
16
@Charles
Exactly-because the states did such a great job of making sure that none of those pesky black folks were allowed to attend state universities in the south when they were left to their own governance.
3
The "states" put deVos in office via Trump through the electoral college. Let's not make a bad situation worse. You've already got states in Trumplandia handing over tax money to worthless charters and worse-than-worthless religious "schools."
5
"It’s quite a story, just as DeVos is quite a gal. Probably the first secretary of education with a $40 million family yacht that’s registered in the Cayman Islands, presumably to avoid American taxes." I thought liberals learned the hard way back under Clinton that playing the politics of resentment was a losing proposition. Then, too, there were high-minded do-gooders crying about social justice until it turned out their houses were full of low-paid illegal immigrant maids and gardeners without social security. Turns out those Clintonian democrats lived in the same block with the "fascist" Reaganite Republicans, had the salaries, went to the same Ivy League colleges, sent their kids like Obama's to the same posh private schools, and yes had yachts docked in the same luxury clubs. DeVos might be evil, you decide for yourself, but her policies are copied from Jeb! Bush and Obama's cult of the charter schools and there is no point in hating her because she is rich. (David Geffen's yacht is twice as big, by the way, that's where Obama spent his summer.)
1
@David
You lost me at "she might be evil." Her replies during her hearing for her current position settled any question about her qualifications, lack of, and her actions since then remove any doubt about her concern for the welfare of ordinary citizens.
7
@David Hmm. I believe your comment is grasping at straws and does not appear to garner much support.
3
@David Equating Obama and DeVos is ridiculous, and I suspect you know that.
4
Gail, the trouble with living in a country where most of the prominent political figures and heads of government agencies show all signs of being sane, not at all rich, and often seen as somewhat boring, is that you cannot believe there are people such as Betsy Devos in government high positions.
Makes me wonder when I read columns like this whether the author has decided to try her hand at creating characters for a future best seller, here a role model for an Ameican Dream novel, in which the American Dream has metamorphosed into the dream of becoming absurdly rich, cruel as can be, and meeting all criteria for DSM 5 assignment to narcissistic personality disorder.
DeVos is surely a robot, put in place by her master to bring America down. Isn't she?
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Citizen US SE
26
@Larry Lundgren
More likely it's her boss who's a robot put in place to bring America down, and his circuits are fried.
1
@Larry Lundgren: While I've always thought that Trump's cabinet was composed of alien robot vampire zombies, I can't credit Gail with concocting this particular iteration of Dolores Umbridge/Cruella de Vil. I do, however, understand why we never see her pointy hat and broom, given Trump's obsession with witch hunts. As for the many yachts, I think it's so Ryan Zinke can go anywhere and still walk out on the bowsprit, grab the forestay in his left hand and shake his right fist in the air yelling "damn you mother nature!!".
What can you expect from an individual like De Vos who identifies herself as a Christian (sic)? Like her Catholic counterparts, her actions are taken totally obliviously to the welfare of the community. These self-righteous individuals form a more potent danger to the American nation for they act under cover of old-fashioned 'values'.
Never a better illustration of the sheep in wolf's clothing, the real enemies of the American people.
24
Betsy DeVos has given at least an entire generation a reason not to have children. Silver linings, people.
19
If you put Betsy DeVos next to Donald Trump and scramble the letters you get: dupe stands by Voldemort - sort of gives one a new perspective. We need Harry in a hurry.
45
@Gerard
Lol!
Ms. Collins, by now you should know it is an exercise in futility in attempting to determine if there is intelligent life in Trumpswamplandia. So far we have seen life, but no intelligence. The only true skill these unintelligent Trump cabinet members possess is pandering during cabinet meetings to see who can heap the highest praise on Dear Leader, grifting and graft (see the EPA), and conning the Trump supporters who still believe this administration will benefit them (see the tax cut con job for proof of no benefit after 2025).
Yes, it would have been tragic if the DeVos yacht had caused damage-to someone else's boat. But, you know, those flags of convenience help not only in taxes but federal labor laws concerning crew members. So, it only stands to reason that no one benefit from federal protections. Those foolish Trump University students? Well, they knew up front about caveat emptor, so, too bad they lost money-it is their fault and they need no federal protection.
Using the law for protection is reserved for con artist real estate developers who need to be protected by abusing bankruptcy laws. So there. And New Jersey's loss on the fabulous Trump casinos? Too bad for them.
In Trumpswamplandia, only the best rats get a break.
44
I would rather hire someone with decent critical thinking skills who is literate (liberal arts major who took some philosophy courses) than someone who has trained narrowly for a particular job (that may not exist when they graduate).
1972: I was a general liberal arts major until I discovered ceramics and an innovative art and design department at the U of Oregon. I became an art major (think "basket weaving") and got deeply into it. I eventually got an MFA and taught ceramics for a while until I discovered computers.
I got Steve Jobs (Mr. Liberal Arts) to give me my first Mac to take to Alaska to teach native people with language-based learning disabilities how to write. I spent the next twenty years consulting for Apple (yes, I bought lots of stock early).
Do I have regrets about my fine arts background? Absolutely not, it continues to inform my life in wonderful ways. Would I have been better off a computer science major with an MBA? No way.
There is no recipe for success, even though many seem buy the notion that there is. Again, give me a literate, civic-minded person with a solid moral and ethical core who can think over a narrowly-trained person who is only thinking "career" any day.
All of that said, Trump and DeVos are the worst type of human beings and I enjoyed Gail's column very much (except for her poke at philosophy students).
63
Betsy De Vos and the for-profit college collective are able to prey on the unsuspecting precisely because so many people, largely children of parents without a college degree, misunderstand the purpose of a college education. Seeing that college graduates have better jobs and earn more money than those without a college degree, they assume you go to college to get skills and a job. Wrong. If you want skills leading directly to employment, you go to trade or technical schools. You go to college to learn critical thinking and broaden your exposure to high level learning. Graduate professional schools take this to a higher level. Traditional law schools, e.g., don’t teach you much if anything about how to practice law or work in or run a law practice. They teach you how to think like a lawyer and how to read the law (something most lawyers did as an apprentice to a practicing lawyer before there were law schools). Colleges promising a direct pipeline to good jobs are not colleges, they are poor, but expensive wanna-be trade schools. Students would be better served to attend a real trade school. But if you want to expand your mind, attend a real college, and then find a position that requires an employee who can think.
39
Okay, it's a horror story. So are there any public service or advocacy agencies that I can donate to that will provide information to potential future students of these for-profit places so that they don't fall into these traps? If you don't enroll you don't have to pay. I feel awful for those already saddled with those unplayable debts but how do we prevent Betsy's Buddies from profiting from another generation of them?
19
I would donate to reason-based candidates for public office, especially candidates for the US Senate, whose role to advise and consent was sadly left on the cutting room floor when presented with the De Vos nomination.
12
@E Campbell
I so agree! Reading this column I kept thinking, couldn’t someone start a really good website that rated these for profit schools and provided anecdotal experiences along with information about their instructors’ teaching credentials, alumni employment experiences, and other information? I know the US News and World Report one is famous and probably makes a bundle in advertising revenue. Maybe there are such sites already, but they need to be much more publicized to help stop these scams.
It would be a fine project for one of our tech billionaires and would probably generate a lot of advertisers.
4
“And I don’t want to give you the impression that Trump has any reservations about for-profit colleges that make grandiose promises to their students about future careers, while taking their money and preparing them for nothing whatsoever.”
Gail, to say that these “scamming-schools”prepare their students for “nothing whatsoever” is a little unfair to both Trump and Ms. DeVos. In fact, they prepare students like Stephanie Stiefel, mentioned in this column, extremely successfully- for a lifetime of debt!
16
The Trump Administration is giving us a clear lesson from top to bottom. They are educating us in the Art of the Deal. Individually and collectively, they would teach us to emulate their methods of ascending to the economic stratosphere:
1. Inherit it
2. Steal it from someone
3. Fleece the gullible
4. Deny your obligations
5. Lie so often it numbs us all
6. If all else fails, use divorce or bankruptcy to repeat #1-#5
This will work for a while (e.g. Price, Pruitt, DeVos, Ross, Mnuchin, Gates, Manafort, Flynn, Trump) but not forever.
The graduates from this Trump University are learning an important life lesson and will soon go for their masters in Pitchforks and Torches 101.
22
This woman was put in charge of the Education Dept in the hope that she could totally decimate it and that is exactly what she has done.
She has no qualifications other than the fact that she is filthy rich and that her family has contributed significant amounts of money to the GOP and to Trump.
While people struggle to pay the education loans that cannot be discharged through bankruptcy, Betsy DeVos sits in her $40 million yacht hatching yet another plan to benefit the for profit schools that have ruined so many lives.
How is it that the public good is being destroyed by vultures and nobody does anything about it?
18
So the yacht that was moored in Ohio is registered in the Cayman Islands? Safe to assume that the other 9 yachts in the family are too. Also safe to assume that supporters of all things trump either 1) don't get the implications (nor the irony) and 2) don't care because of their bizarre worship of all things rich. I truly don't know if I should laugh or cry.
16
Betsy Devos should face felony prosecution just for being Betsy Devos. She is, without a doubt the most successful advocate for fraud in American education in history! She has a track record of creating a system of worthless charter schools as a correction for the Michigan public school system that failed to create debt for middle class families. Under Betsy's expert guidence, those charter schools successfully enriched crooked entrepreneurs while simultaneously failing to educate students. The debt burden saddled families with crippling debt to ensure they would be in no position to afford college tuition of any kind.
There are rumors about that she is striving to combine public education with a network marketing concept that will allow 4 families in each state to bankrupt everyone else.
She is uniquely prepared to destroy public education for the 95% who don't qualify for Phillips Andover, or the like. She is likely to provide every high school student with a big head start on the economic inequality that they couldn't otherwise aspire to until enrolling in for-profit colleges. Betsy Devos, creating no future for the Middle America!
24
Betsy DeVos claim that her actions are simply to promote the "GLORY OF GOD". Makes us wonder about the nature of her god. The DeVos family sits on the top of a massive pyramid marketing machine. There is a monument to their greed in Orlando, the Amway Cathedral (coliseum).
Eric DeVos, Betsy's brother, is now convincing Trump to allow Eric to take over the war in Afghanistan. An army of mercenaries reporting directly to Trump with Eric as now one of his Generals. What could go wrong? What happened to DOD? $716 billion for defense, or invasion?
So, the DeVos family is just as corrupt and venal as The Trump family. By extension, the entire GOP is as well.
30
Here's a suggestion for anyone out there considering who to vote for in November and beyond. Ask yourself: Are the policies being implemented by this administration making your and your families' lives ACTUALLY better than they were before Trump was elected? And I don't mean that you got a small tax cut. Do you feel the problems that led you to vote or consider voting for Trump are being addressed, ignored, or made worse? I also don't mean he is making someone else's life worse to make you feel better. I mean do you feel more secure in being able to pay your bills, getting health care, being able to retire, being able to pay for college, and so forth? Or do you feel that "conditions" are being created for a smoother path forward. Someday? That "the check is in the mail" kind of feeling? Or do you feel that what you have to do now (AND if that check never arrives) is just shut up, pay the bill, and cry like Ms Stiefel. "They made it seem so simple" is what she said. The key words there are "made it seem". They "made it seem" like they cared. "They made it seem" like I would make thousands more. They "made it seem" like the "pay to play" swamp would go away. So here's a suggestion for all these folks: stop listening to "they made it seem". If it sounds too good to be true, it is. Save your money and heartache. And use your time and energy to register and vote in November and beyond. In reality...they don't care.
13
Not that DeVos (and others supporting these for-profit schools) shouldn't be thrown out of government and sued for fraud, but these schools also should have collapsed long ago from lack of demand. It's been an open secret for well over a decade that their post-graduation employment prospects are abysmal.
So I can't help but feel amazed when I read the stories of people in this article who pursued degrees in the rigorous discipline of interior design, and are today shocked that they owe over $100,000 for nothing.
Government should be shutting these schools down. At the same time, a fool and their money were lucky enough to have gotten together in the first place.
10
It certainly is good to hear from you, Gail, although truth be told the fault is probably mine. But good gosh, how is the economy, with a capital E, supposed to increase itself and make room for all the plutocrat poltroons if there isn't a commitment on the part of even the little red schoolhouses to start out each day to make a profit?
Still, we must admit, how can we live a righteous life if we produce shekels and gold but let the spirit that consecrates go wandering and lost?
The only enrichment I ever expected from education was the ability to counsel myself on the wisdom of the ages. You know, they have let much of the fundamental truths gather dust because there is too much misguidance of the young in matters that are said to be relevant. Said to be relevant.
2
The greed of people, I use the term loosely, like DeVos is astonishing. Liberals are often accused of being in favor of tax codes that redistribute income. I think it's time for confiscation of assets that people have acquired by buying legislators and gaming the tax code.
35
This is the absurdity of a very stupid and corrupt Education Secretary who works for the interests of the for profit educational industry and has no concerns for the quality and affordability of education of the average American. I wish she got on one of her 10 yachts and drifted away to oblivion taking her inimitable boss with her!
9
Paving the way for the new iteration of Trump University. She's an unqualified dolt but the one thing that she's always been focused on is school privatization and how to monetize students. She's out to make money for her friends (sound familiar?) at the expense of students and their families. DeVos is one of the many grifters in this administration so this should come as no surprise. Coming out of the Amway/Blackwater Experience gives Betsy the perfect qualifications.
17
If you were looking for an example of how being immensely rich doesn’t guarantee you a meaningful and successful life, you’d be hard put to come up with a better one than Betsy DeVos.
53
I wonder why Betsy Devos is in this job. She apparently doesn’t need the money and she appears to know virtually nothing about education or how schools work. It sure seems like a lot of people including Devos that are working for Trump have a real cruelty streak. Of course 45 certainly doesn’t seem to care.
12
@Javaforce
I'm pretty sure charter schools (actual for-profit mills) she helped insinuate in Michigan were such a miserable experience that she decided to expand the family tradition.
2
@Javaforce
She’s there to decimate public schools who do not preach religion. The new Christian movement seems to love, love, love the likes of Trump and Pence.
Ironic, isn’t it? Christians for immorality and cruelty.
MIMA
6
I am still curious about the yacht. It was moored in Ohio? Really? Does it have a library with books, and does Ms deVil, oops, DeVos read? Does she even know how? We already know her math is, shall we say, a bit askew. It seems as if her additions are correct provided that the correct people are helping her, you know...folks from for-profit schools, religious schools, etc. But it's those stubborn subtractions that her people are having a hard time getting. I mean they're getting the tax deductions. However, it's those darn college loans that I wonder about. I hear it can be pretty hot in the summer and pretty cold in the winter when forced to live in a refrigerator box.
In all seriousness, I find this education secretary to be a disgrace. She is callously robbing from our kids, our future, all for greed. Like her president who gives men a bad name, she does likewise for women. The glass ceiling she has broken is raining piercing shards upon our children...cutting to pieces their aspirations, hopes, and dreams. In spite of her self-serving agenda, even she does not surpass the utter bankruptcy of morals and ethics hourly manifested by her "guy" taking up space in the Oval Office. This country ignorantly opened Pandora's Box (Cruella, that's a Greek thing) in 2016, and we have been running for cover ever since.
34
For profit - any kind of business - is for selling autos, clothes, furniture, equipment of any kind, etc. You get the picture.
For profit companies are not good for any kind of Human Service. education care or anything else that involves human beings - think about the detention centers for children and families taken apart. at the border.
For profit is for the income of owners and shareholders. so you keep a tight budget on resources, equipment, salaries, training, evaluation etc. It shows up in prisons, nursing homes, schools, etc all those places Betsy DeVos likes. They MAKE $$$$ they don't give care and compassion out for free.
6
Comparing WSJ's Editorial on this topic with Gail's Column:
NYT: DeVos is making it easier for those very same kids to be cheated when they try to prepare for a career.
WSJ: Two new rules will expand options for low-income students.
NYT: The Obama administration worked very hard to weed out bad for-profit colleges.
WSJ: ..reverse two Obama rules that would have cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars and diminished education options for students who can’t afford tuition at Stanford or Georgetown.
NYT: ..compare an average graduate’s debt with the average graduate’s earnings. Then cut off federal grants and loans to the schools that had a really terrible ratio.
WSJ: Team Obama had grabbed the 8% threshold from a 2006 research paper on mortgage eligibility standards, which the authors acknowledged had no “particular merit or justification” as a gauge of manageable student debt.
NYT: ..think less about a kid on a four-year campus and more about “someone 29 with three kids.”
WSJ: When Mrs. DeVos proposed applying the rule to all colleges, nonprofit and public colleges howled.
It's understandable that the tone of WSJ is biased toward the colleges while here it's toward the students. Going by the numbers (there are more students than people running colleges), I expected at least some sympathy for the students in the WSJ comments section but found little. "Buyer beware" I guess..
13
Ms Collins your sarcasm usually brings a smile to my face and an admiration if your writing. However this so called administration is nothing but grifters who have no public service running in their veins. Every action begs the question of “who benefits?” It is as if we are all the detective waiting to be called to uncover who did it. The level of corruption is historic and is so blatant it cannot be hidden.
22
I have always been truly shocked no one has tried to kill this horrible unfit half wit yet. I'm not advocating it. I'm just shocked it hasn't happened since more than anyone in the corrupt Trump sewer this woman is directly harming children's safety and future. She blocked an investigation into predatory fraudulent charter schools because her family owned schools were on the list to be investigated. In any other time that would be enough to have her investigated and removed. But when you have a Russian operative in the Whitehouse who has surrounded himself with compromised Russian operatives then things fall by the wayside. Gotta wonder what Trump's country club buddies are doing to our veterans in the VA. How much money will they and Trump skin away from veterans? I shudder to think.
18
DeVos believes that religious schools should get funding like public schools. But would she and her ilk think the same for Islamic or Jewish schools? Would those schools tell their students the establishment clause of the first amendment didn't exist? Their science classes would hAve the Bible as the textbook, and there would be a fixation on cursive writing. This is scary.
11
No end to the Trump horrors. Nov. 2018 might be our last chance to affect our future.
31
Gail Collins proves over and over again that she is the best writer at this paper. Not flashy, not cute and pithy, just brilliant. Thank you for writing this amazing piece. Betsy Devos is no educator.
28
Great. Another article on the Grifters in the Trump Administration. Be Afraid!!
Any ideas for correcting the matter, or is this merely outrage with no solutions? No use at all?
1
The attitude of this entire administration is:
I've got mine / but I want more
So I'll keep mine / and then take yours.
36
And then there is Betsy's brother Erik Prince who has said on CNN he wants to take over the war in Afghanistan and privatize it. I guess if Prince is running the show we don't need the generals after all? Getting scary...…….
7
We've reached Peak Plutocracy when the Education Secretary has 9 yachts. 9!
24
She's a perfect Trump appointee: a low-I.Q., venal, greedy billionaire who's only allegiance is to the 1%. Remember, Trump said he loves the uneducated. And she's the proof.
91
There is so much to get angry at regarding this administration it is hard to find the time. This is probably the worst of all the travesties that we have witnessed. To prey on the most vulnerable is beyond sickening. The thing I believe I have figured out is that many rich people have no shame, I believe they think it is a weakness. What you think of them is not money in the bank.
Not being religious I can not hope for their future eternity in Hades, but it would sure make some of this stuff palatable.
9
For the life of me I do not understand Betsy DeVos and people like her. Rich beyond belief and so sure that this is so because god looks on them with favor and gave them their wealth because of their goodness. Her brother is a mercenary who wants to make more profit from war. They appear to want to punish anyone who is not as rich as they are.
34
DeVos epitomizes class war. Trump's a real Trojan horse, full of the richest warriors. Of the Americans who invited him in, most don't even see the swords.
31
No teacher worth their salt owns a forty million dollar anything.
5
Gail Collins is a National Treasure!
22
Teachers who committed to teaching in underserved school systems were able to apply for programs where their loans would be forgiven. Many were pushed out these programs and have had to pay back all the tuition over a technicality. Just as this was being regulated and teachers regained their standing, Devos jumped in to push teachers to the curb by stopping the regulation.
Another area Devos is devoted to is making helping states skip out on their responsibility to pay teachers a pension — that is the reason she and Republicans pushed New Orleans to close the public schools and go to a charter system. They are also pushing Puerto Rico into the same miserable state of affairs, closing schools that functioned as the center communities.
When you combine this with the most recent cuts in Social Security for spouses in the tax bill that was passed, you can expect to see innumerable poor women, Truly, DeVos is sociopathic.
20
I won't be surprised if Betsy DeVos's next move will be to provide a $500 million guarantee to a newly redesigned Trump university.
That is one sure fire way to avoid being fired . . . . . by Mike Pence??
16
This is the family that brought us Betsy and the destroyer of what’s left of the American education system. It’s also brought us Blackwater, the for profit mercenaries who torture people. It’s also brought us Amway, a pyramid scheme if there ever was one. Meanwhile, Agent Orange has moved on to the next shiny object in an attempt to obfuscate for another week, all while the country falls apart. I’m sorry, Gail, but this morning you have been a buzzkill.
23
This is what happens when you rule by regulation instead of by statute and then foist Hillary upon us. You run the very real risk that the next President will undo all those regulations.
@G.Janeiro
No, this is what happens when we are content always to blame our own inaction and lack of responsibility on others. Do you let the house burn down because you don't like the color of the water hose?
5
That's the necessity when the GOP congressmen and senators elected to work for the people chose instead to take eight years off working against them. HRC was a saint, a genius, and an over-achiever compared to the swine now in the oval office, but too many like you bought into the 30-year Fox News smear campaign against her to see that reality.
9
@wcdevins Agree completely.
"Bane"?
More like plague, unnatural disaster, or crony-coddling foe of education.
6
Gail, this is a tale that could be told straight and still sound like satire: Betsy visiting New York City and not considering visiting any of the million children in public schools.
9
According to the book, "Bad Blood", chronicling the Theranos scandal, Betsy and family sunk a cool $100 million into the scam, creating nothing more than stock that evaporated into thin air.
One imagines the DeVos family yawning...easy come, easy go.
15
Maybe we can look at this in a brave new way... Let's say Betsy and her like are, hmm, alphas, then Trump might be a bit higher up, say an alpha-plus... We could then full out the cast with betas, gammas, deltas and epsilon. Ruling class - - - > workers. Alphas deserve education, others not so much.
We can sequence DNA on birth and put the people in the right group.
Wait, I think I read about this somewhere,.. Got to ask Aldous
8
Many years ago I briefly worked for the old Veterans' Administration helping vets attending school. For-profit 4 year schools were a rarity in those days and most seemed to be on the up-and-up.
The same could not be said for the 1-2 year for-profit vocational schools.
Trump U. was not an anomaly; many of our retired, well-known politicians gotten wealthy from such places only slightly less odious than T.U.
18
Please add York Technical Institute in York, Pa to the list of "colleges" that do not care about the welfare of their students. My wife graduated with a 3.5 and was only able to get a minimum wage position in a health related facility. She had to resign and find a job that paid a living wage. Six years after graduating she is still paying on her student loan.
This administration is putting profits before people. Please vote for the moderate or progressive candidate in November
30
This is a great op-ed that highlights just how evil DeVos and her (GOP) policies are, while also making me chuckle over the philosophy major question. I was a poor coal-miner's daughter who went to a big state university (on government-backed loans while working half time) and got a liberal arts degree (in the hard sciences, but it was formally called "arts and letters") that included a few "useless" courses required to fill out my major. I wouldn't trade that experience for anything in the world. I was surrounded by people striving to open their minds, do critical thinking, and learn from those who do this for a living, for the sake of advancing knowledge and enhancing the way we live our lives. We all hoped to land a job and make a living afterward, but that was not the only reason we went there...it was to learn and become better individuals and citizens. (Okay, sure, and hope to meet the love of our lives.) Will those days ever return?
49
Mr.Trump chose Betsy DeVos to continue his failed cause of for profit education.He ran Trump University( later University was dropped at the insistence of NYState)for five years and defrauded many who thought they could make money in real estate.He settled three law suits for 25 million dollars for his bad business practices,Ms.DeVos was a cynical choice to continue as a champion of for profit schools with questionable records-she was not selected to take on the task of improving the public school experience for all students.
31
Enough with the "Useless Philosophy" jokes!! According to PayScale.com, there are only 7 non-engineering degrees that outperform philosophy. Both the starting and mid-career salaries of philosophy majors surpass those of many so-called "practical" majors, including chemistry, marketing, communications, business management, nursing, journalism, biology, and architecture. Note also that this list includes only people "who possess a Bachelor's degree and no higher degrees and have majored in the subjects listed above", which means there are lots of jobs for philosophy majors other than philosophy professor. Because philosophy majors can think and question presuppositions, they are better on the job and thus more likely to get raises and promotions. Today's job market is constantly changing, and it's impossible to rewrite the "practical" courses fast enough to keep up with those changes. Consequently, what employers need the most is employees who know how to think, to adapt themselves to the constantly changing demands of today's careers.
High level executive jobs will always require you to read difficult technical texts filled with complex arguments, and determine which of those arguments make legitimate inferences from their premises. If you can do this with the Critique of Pure Reason, you won't have any trouble doing it with market research reports and plumbing regulations.
723
@Teed Rockwell
The problem now since the costs of education(on all levels) has become so costly that students have to choose the best choice for employment so the best are choosing technical studies .
5
@Teed Rockwell Thank you. We need to keep reminding people that college is not job training, but is mind training. As someone with a transcript of eccentric electives, I have often found that the courses I took for fun have proved to be more useful in my job than the courses I took for my job.
15
@Teed Rockwell
With the world changing so quickly these days, a good liberal arts degree seems more and more valuable.
2
What kind of civilized country would promote for-profit education, for-profit prisons, and for-profit health care? The same country that would float the idea of for-profit Social Security, the ultimate oxymoron.
Young people just starting out are saddled with a huge debt burden and then forced to take jobs they don't want simply because that's the only way for them to get health insurance (and to make payments on their debt, which they may never be able to pay off).
Those in the U.S. are being bilked from birth to death, at the mercy of a social system that wholly abdicates the responsibility to foster a healthy and creative population capable of first-rate innovation.
This U.S. system, this "way of life," is inherently inhumane.
We are digging our own graves.
158
Unfortunately, the demographic most affected by these predatory schools is one that is already vastly ignored. Rich and moderate income people don't send their kids to these schools. You can get a far better education at a far lower cost, including loans and grants, at a community college.
I doubt it's a problem for NYT readers, and that fact makes it insidious. The natural audience for this piece is too busy studying and scraping by to see what a bad deal they are getting.
970
@Susan I work at a community college and we are always getting students from one of those schools who have nothing from them but a large debt and wasted years. We do outreach to the high schools in the area and have started running TV commercials to try to stop other students from making the same mistake. Please, please tell everyone to check out the community college first. You can get a degree that will take you far or a certificate in as little as a year that will get you a good job .
PS. My first degree is from community college and now I have two masters and run a department at my college.
15
@Susan
This reminds me of Elizabeth Warren’s attack on credit card and pay day loan practices. Now that Trump is in office, those regulations are going by the way as well.
There is a point where people who do have good educations and good jobs should be ready to fight for those who don’t because we are the ones who might have the power to do it.
13
@Susan : These scams have been going-on for a long time. Is it possible that the "natural" audience for this piece just does not read, at all? Even the fine print in the scam-schools glossy brochures indicate lack of accreditation.
Magical thinking is a leading indicator of poor reading habits.
1
Why the put down about Philosophy Majors?
Our Law are structured on the same principles of Philosophy.
The Bill of Rights and Constitution are Philosophical treaties.
Philosophy is essential to understanding everything about humanity and it’s behavior, including Betsy DeVos.
71
@Maria Thank you for including all our important laws. We need to remind everyone all the time.
1
In fact this is good news for the grisly bears but bad news for the students. As we remember she was telling to the confirmation hearing of the Senate that the grisly bears were a threat to the students and therefore schools need guns to protect them. Now she so busy protecting private schools that she is forgetting about the grisly bears, Another exemple of how she got her priorities wrong. Private schools can hurt only the student's or parent's wallet, but the grisly bears can hurt and killed the students.
3
AMWAY has been interpreted as a pyramid scheme because it is marketed with hugely false business promises. It has been ruled legal, because product actually exchanges hands, although most of this `inventory' sits idle in garages and basements.
For profit charter trade type schools are too often much the same. I see them worse, however, because our government actually provides many of the loans to these diploma mills under the guise of patriotic concern for veterans' needs.
24
I had never heard of Amway until my sister gave me her presentation over 20 years ago. She was convinced it was her way forward, and went so far as to buy a license plate marked "fredom" ("freedom" apparently having already been taken by a bigger fool.) She ask me what I thought and I told her "it seems like you have to be a fundamentalist Christian to join this company." She balked at the characterization. Fast forward - she has deserted her Democratic Catholic heritage to become a fundamentalist Christian Trump GOP deplorable. Her garage is still full of unsold Amway product. There is a sucker born every minute, and they all voted for Trump.
4
Courses on coal mining 101 and an undergraduate course on 'staring at an abandoned parking lot where your manufacturing job used to be' coming to a for profit school soon.
26
Sounds like another perfect "let them eat cake" Trump personality selection, which makes me wonder, is my longing for the good old days of "knit one, pearl two" inappropriate or does it even make any sense at all?
8
Gail, I am delighted that you are aiming your sword at the serious issues of this presidency, rather than the superficial ones. It's hard to maintain the lightness when faced with such corruption as Ms. DeVos. Rather than the occasional sad stories about individuals, we need a comprehensive investigative review of the institutions that prey on the weakest and poorest students. They appear to be crony capitalism run amok. --and as others have commented, we shouldn't ignore the blackwater shadow behind the curtain.
22
Isn't Eric Prince her brother and head of Blackwater? He seems to be busy getting Trump to privatize the military. Quite a thought - our country's basic needs like having a well-regulated military and providing a decent education for all being turned over to the for-profit people like DeVos and Prince and Trump. Everything seems to be about making money for a select few.
59
There are so many disgusting appointees of Donald Trump, dutifully confirmed by Mitch McConnell and the Gang, it is difficult to think of any of them without triggering a gag reflex.
A photograph of Betsy DeVos brings on a wave of nausea. The sound of her voice making some empty-headed claim is safely heard only on an empty stomach.
Even Donald Trump may be unable to keep his last cheeseburger down in the company of Betsy DeVos.
DeVos and her family have done terrible harm to public education. Students trying to improve their lives have had those lives ruined by our Secretary of Education.
With all of their wealth, why couldn’t DeVos and her family play it straight? Think of a robber baron, Andrew Carnegie, who reformed and ended up doing wonderful things for education in America. Think of the Rockefeller family.
All we can do is put the DeVos name on our long list of Trump’s unforgiveable sins.
51
Of all the petty and not so petty grifters and scoundrels in the Trump orbit, Ms. DeVos has made herself unique by not having to steal money from the American people herself. She just makes it possible for others to do it in the name of for-profit schools and religious liberty. The actual students don’t really matter, and it doesn’t matter if they pile up enormous personal debts while going to one of these “schools.”
One of our senators from Maine, Senator Collins, made it possible for Ms. DeVos to be confirmed for her cabinet post by voting for her nomination to be moved out of committee and onto the Senate floor, where she “ courageously” voted against her. She was confirmed, while Senator Collins could claim a vote of true conscience.
The damage being done by Zinke, Ross, Mnuchin, Carson, Perry, and the rest of the gang that couldn’t shoot straight is peanuts compared to Ms. DeVos. Many of these students’ lives will be diminished, even ruined, by her actions.
47
@Bevan Davies
AS a Maine resident I can't for the life of me figure out why Dems in this state aren't making more of Collins chicanery. The Devos vote out of committee being only one of her betrayals. Can't someone in the press confront her publicly about this forked-tongue betrayal now that she's waffling about Agent Orange's Court Nominee?
13
Gee, I hope this backfires and that large numbers of people begin to see all for-profit career-colleges as scams. Some folks might even ask why we need them when we could have a public option that would cut out the middle-crook.
7
If you look you will find that all those who have been ranting and carrying on about the failure of public education (Rush, et al) have money in for profit education schemes, charter school, bogus colleges, you name it. Just last Session has stock in for profit prisons. Pay attention T and his ilk are the for profit gurus running the R party and they stink to high heaven. Every single head of an agency is as dirty and corrupt as they can get, they hire their kids, relatives, high school football teams members, you name it. No one is to obscure or unqualified to get on job.
42
@chemjudy
Rush may complain about the state of the educational system but does not shill for for profit colleges. The only college he talks about is Hillsdale college which is a chartered school with two campuses. It is a liberal arts college founded by the Freewill Baptist denomination in 1844.
1
Thank you Gail for that reminder. Between pornstars and parades, Omorosa and ominous tapes, Rudy and rudeness we forget what the Master of distraction and destruction is doing to our country.
22
DeVos, like Trump, is utterly shameless. Raised in a wealthy family and then married into an even richer one, she is unrelenting in her desire to destroy public education and allow business to fleece the unsophisticated and unsuspecting who legitimately seek a road to a better life.
Business figured out long ago that there was a huge trough of money in federally guaranteed student loans, so they fought hard for their for-profit schools to access these programs.
A lot of what they offer is available from traditional community colleges or vocational high schools at a much lower cost. And in some cases, what they teach has traditionally been learned OTJ (like food prep). A large percentage of students at these places they never finish or don’t find better paying jobs as promised, and wind up with big debts, worse off than they were before.
But like with Mulvaney’s loosening of rules for payday lenders, DeVos is making it easier for businesses whose objective is to take advantage of the fairly unsophisticated, lower economic classes. But why?
Because Trump is a grifter whose whole business life has been about selling fake status. Selling fake education (remember Trump University?) is no different. Strivers who want a better life are the most fertile targets for conmen like Trump. Sell the dream and the marks get the money from the governmen—and it’s all legal! Brilliant! DeVos thinks she is cutting regulations, but really she is just allowing the con to continue and thrive.
29
There's going to be plenty of jobs for Trump voters in coal mining now that the war on coal is over. And Gail forgot to mention the opportunities to have your own Amway business.
37
@Nick Adams, As if pollution respects state borders. States are the reason this country will never have equal protection of the law.
11
Please register to vote and then vote, vote, vote this fall. If I hear that some tiny percentage of people votes this fall, I'm going to fall into despair. It really does matter!
54
Why do people pretend to be "Christian"? It sells. It's the same reason they pretend to be anti-choice (I don't repeat the marketing term the GOP uses). The responsibility of determining who is full of nonsense is up to each voter. To be an intelligent voter requires looking beyond bumper stickers and researching what politicians actually DO. So very many Republicans in state legislatures do nothing but look for ways to deny girls and women their right to abortion and to deny anyone who isn't a guaranteed "troglodyte vote", their access to voting. The only way the Republicans can win is to cheat and lie. Everyone needs to look at what they do, day in and day out. Are they working for the majority of the people they represent? Are they, in fact, working on your behalf?
28
Along with hiring some very fine people (really), Trump has assembled quite a number of self-serving types. Face it, Trump is “the Dark Side” or more accurately Jung’s “the shadow”. He has attracted and employed people who have given in to humanity’s worst instincts and called them conservatism to rationalize their acts. Betsy DeVos though ridiculous is not unique in this administration made of the best donors Trump knows. There are lots of wise sayings about what those opposed to this force must do. What they all demand is for noise not silence, understanding this administration is powerful and dangerous and opposition can be costly. Just watch “Star Wars”.
14
DeVos and the Trumplings are the epitome of entitlement. A serious cautionary tale of what a person becomes, with huge amounts of unearned wealth. Clueless, cruel and conniving.
Seriously.
34
Well, then thank goodness for Congressional oversight!
25
It could be worse:
"Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. says President elect-Donald Trump offered him the job of education secretary, but that he turned it down for personal reasons."
(AP 11/2616)
Worse right? Or maybe not. So hard to tell.
With just a few exceptions, ranking Trump''s hires, failed hires, and almost hireds, is like ranking different types of cancers.
Some are more survivable than others but they all do damage.
28
This is not the only deVos we need to keep an eye on. Apparently, her brother who headed and ran Blackwater is also looking to profit from taxpayer dollars by privatizing the war in Afghanistan. Like his sister and family profiting from privatized charter schools stripping the taxpayer funded education system of its funding, Lizzy’s brother is looking to profit as well. I seem to recall that billions of American taxpayer dollars disappeared in the early stages of the afghan war and Blackwater was one of the leading suspects. Nice going for the deVos family.
20
And all the while... pampered students at elite colleges riot and bicker about identity politics instead of demonstrating against scams perpetrated on their less fortunate peers. Social justice warriors seem to have an agenda that does not extend to blue collar families.
What deVos is doing is antisocial and destructive of the civil society. It is amazing that both Republicans and Democrats don;t react to protect their constituents.
39
@Kai----Identity politics? What do you think the Trump campaign engaged in if not identity politics. Here's some news: white is an identity. Heterosexual is an identity. Male is an identity. Christian is an identity. Not going to college is an identity. Donald Trump won his election by appealing to straight white male Christians whose education stopped at high school. He promised them they could remain dominant over the other "identities" that will eventually become the majority in this country. Social justice warriors are far superior than Trump supporters, aka, social INJUSTICE warriors.
3
Republicans are protecting their constituents, their contributors.
1
1. Please provide an example from the last five years of a riot at an elite university.
2. “Bickering” (also known as “debate”, “argumentation”, “discourse” and “discussion”) is a key part of the exchange of ideas.
3. Yes, there are a lot of ignorant, misinformed and/or stupid people with dumb opinions at colleges and universities. That’s because there are a lot of ignorant, misinformed and/or stupid people with dumb opinions everywhere. (State legislatures are amusing/horrifying examples.) Why focus particularly on the occasional idiocies of higher education? At least at those institutions you’re supposed to go in stupid and come out smart. Elsewhere (say, just as an offhand example, the White House), clinging to a defective idea is thought of as “keeping promises”.
2
When the news reports that working class Americans feel that Democrats didn't do anything for them, it turns out that they tried. They tried to stop credit abuses, from credit card fees to payday loans. They also tried to expand medicaid to cover many workers. And of course they tried to stop the abuses of the for profit colleges that mine young workers for money - and give them education that is little better than empty calories. Worse still, Republicans routinely oppose these ideas - and yet the working man thinks that Republicans are the better alternative.
1247
Republicans milk the system for all they can get, and then when things sufficiently fall apart they are ousted and Democrats come in to clean up the mess, until people tire of them (for whatever reasons, including "just wanting change," again). The GOP propaganda machine does its part to help maintain the vicious cycle.
11
@Terry McKenna since the Reagan years the Republicans have won a PR battle and that is that government is too big and it doesn’t work. So when a certain group of voters hear the Democrats offering legislative solutions they don’t believe in them. And now we have a president who with his coconspirators (his cabinet and Congresss) are truly making sure government doesn’t work. Let’s not forget this long road started with Reagan and now we have evolved to a government that has no pretense of even trying to help the American people.
4
@Terry McKenna
It is because of Fox News and talk radio.
2
In the past, I enjoyed the humor in Gail's pieces. But at this point in the Trump administration, it's nearly impossible to be amused. As for Betsy DeVos, it's tragic. Once again, those most impacted by her reckless efforts are the very people who need the most help.
Our nation needs new leadership. Please support Michelle Obama's initiative to encourage voter participation. Remember 40+% of the population neglected to vote in 2016. whenweallvote.org could make the difference.
92
Charter schools are touted as the solutions to America's educational problems. Their supporters call them innovative. When pressed for specifics, they have no details. I think the major innovation is that the staff is paid less and in some cases, may not have teaching credentials.
Yes, we are graduating kids with poor reading and math skills. And what are we doing about it? We put Betsy DeVos at the helm, steering us to privitization like that is an effective instructional program or technique, backed by research.
39
@Monica C
In addition to poor reading and math skills(in many cases, none) - almost no reasoning skills, that's how they get so easily suckered into these things.
Public "high schools" have been disasters, by and large, for over 30 years.
In many EU countries the college education is free, in some you have to contribute roughly 700€/yr. As an English mother tongue teacher of ESL you can earn twice that amount - monthly. Due to the EU student movement and exchange programs many courses nowdays are offerd in English all over Europe.
29
@ves
Always remember: "The business of America is business".
And: "Honestly if we can. Dishonestly if we must."
America in a nutshell.
14
Years ago, the late comedian Professor Irwin Corey offered what he called the "Five Minute University". For $5 he would teach you in five minutes everything you'd remember from college after five years. With inflation, the price would probably be about $20 in today's money.
Colleges are themselves an unbelievable scam, be they legitimate or not and surely not a place for which every human being on earth is destined. In Tom Friedman's ideal society, the kind that gives him goosebumps, people are engaged in a Sisyphean task of learning, always on the precipice of failure because they could not remain current. Of course, since on-the-job-training is a relic of the past, the onus is upon the student or employee to fund their own demise. College was once a noble pursuit for the wealthy, now it is a miserable and meaningless test of endurance. If you can make it out in one piece, you are considered suitable corporate material, especially if you are in considerable debt. An indebted employee is a docile employee.
31
@stan continople People should always be involved in the Sisyphean task of learning.
5
@stan continople
When a person ceases to learn, or never actually starts to learn, you end up with Trump.
7
@stan continople
I think you have attributed the "5 minute University" to the wrong comedian. (Though, I'm a big believer in the concept.)
Comedian Don Novello’s character Father Guido Sarducci proposes a five minute university to teach only the lessons that the average student will remember after five years of graduation.
https://youtu.be/DRBW8eJGTVs
2
Like health care, education has been transformed into a way for investors to make money through loans and getting workers indebted to them. This is why they Hate the idea of financing these items through taxation. they are using the tax breaks for the rich to turn the country into one big company store.
86
@Andy Makar
It's a heck of a scam. The loans carry high interest rates, they can't be discharged in bankruptcy, and, they're guaranteed by the taxpayers. And it's perfectly legal.
17
@Bob
Yes, and most public "high schools" fail to teach the skills to see through scams of any kind.
@Andy Makar
Betsy would make the US a theocratic government. The defrauded can only be saved through God's grace.
Amway is the model privatization Ponzi scheme now extended into the Department of Education. Amway sells products while it seeks religious converts at the same time. Sociologists have called Amway a "quasi-religious corporation" with sectarian characteristics, preaching the gospel of prosperity.
Besides selling soap, Betsy and her family have reaped billions of government dollars as "contractors" while hypocritically eschewing "big government." Her brother Eric Prince (Blackwater, Triple Canopy), is currently pitching a plan to outsource the entire military operation in Afghanistan to an army of mercenaries.
Their call from God is to fleece as many marks as possible while saving souls.
Government operations should be not for profit and the government should not be used to proselytize any religion.
12
The man stuffs his administration with ultra-rich individuals who exclusively favor policies for the ultra-rich, yet his base still loves him for fighting for the average working class person. Are they all on drugs? Have they been taken over by the pod people from the Invasion of the Body Snatchers? There has to be an explanation!
322
@MEM
Reality television?
I think Trump's a Reagan echo. He certainly would like to be, but louder and harder-edged.
12
@MEM The explanation is easy: FOX news and an inability to accept information that conflicts with their worldview.
1
The explanation is their prejudices and love of simple sounding solutions to complex problems makes them easy pray for the right wing media and Republican establishment.
2
Another easy way to identify a scam school like Trump University is to use the College Scorecard to find the % of students who are currently making payments on their student loans.
A for-profit school like University of Phoenix in Maryland has a graduation rate of 17% and only 27% of former students are making payments on their student loans.
Compare that to the local public university, University of Maryland, with an 86% graduation rate and 80% of former students making payments.
The students are incurring huge debts and largely not graduating. And the US taxpayer becomes responsible for the defaulted loans.
Diabolical DeVos, whose family fortune was made filling people's garages with Amway stuff they can't sell, is just applying the family business model to Education on behalf of her scam school friends. Exploit those who are vulnerable, single parents, military vets and others who are looking for an honest way to make a decent living.
Pretty revolting and truly Trumpian!
264
@Look Ahead thanks for pointing out two useful bits of data.
2
Thanks for throwing data.Collins might have done so as well.
2
Blackwater, not Blackwood. But wood or water, it all smells bad.
25
Liberals don’t need the pretext of looking out for the “little guy”, who voted so heavily for Trump in the last election; it’s that they don’t believe that there SHOULD be rich people, that those who create great wealth or even manage what they inherited should voluntarily surrender that wealth (to government, of course) and when they don’t that it should be taken from them. They believe that use of personal wealth is un-American, while opponents claim that the spleen liberals expose at great wealth is un-American. All that’s certain is that a lot of people have screwy ideas about what is and is not “American”. But accurate history is not on Gail’s side. And the real reason is that liberals distrust individuals who have the resources to protect themselves against excessively-intrusive government and the odd ideas of levelers. Undoubtedly as well why so many liberals are knee-jerk gun-control berserkers. Anything that serves as barrier to a hive-mentality is to be despised.
Betsy DeVos is an embarrassment who doesn’t matter a hill of beans. I’d invite Barack Obama to a barbecue in a New York minute because I’d get to meet Michelle; but I’d never invite DeVos to a barbecue because I’d be afraid of having to listen to gum popping for the entire afternoon. Yet she matters to how we live our lives about as much as Ben Carson does by running HUD.
Give me a Congress and a president that want to address and solve our education challenges, which will require …
8
… transformative legislation that centralizes a great deal of power over education in the federal government, and do it in a sustainable way that ISN’T merely the universal brainwashing by liberal elites of our children, and I’d agitate for a far more capable secretary of Education – in order to hatch creative ideas for implementing the will of Congress and a presidential commitment.
In the profound absence of that desire … who cares who runs the department? And who cares that she annoyingly pops gum? Just don’t invite her to barbecues.
Gail needs to succumb to fewer meaningless distractions.
5
@Richard Luettgen
The for-profit vocational colleges are thriving on GI Bill benefits and government subsidized loans that generate large profits for no risk for lenders since the taxpayers make good on the huge number of defaulted loans. In other words, these wealth creators get rich from government programs and not by creating value for society.
169
@MEM:
I'm sure you mean that the for-profits that are fraudulent are getting rich on government benefits while not creating value for society.
As if Betsy weren't doing enough mischief, her brother Eric Prince (and appropriate family name, I think), head of Blackwood, wants to replace US troops in Afghanistan and make a huge profit replacing them with Blackwood employees - in other words, mercenaries. Mercenaries the world over are known for their proclivity to commit war crimes.
I wonder how much money Blackwood would pay them for each dead Afghan - man, woman or child?
105
@Donald Seekins
Lots of mercenaries fought (or whatever they did) in Iraq - not under that name, but the reality is that they did much of the dirty work the army wouldn't do.
1
Well, if the secretary of education wants to keep her family yacht this is none of my business, but perhaps she could organize a school outing on the above.
An American millionaire died on his yacht in the middle of matrimonial discussions with the British Peerage, and it was sold to Lillie Langtry, known as 'The Jersey Lily'. A little historical anecdote for you, Ms. Collins, on an aside, while our country stands in the gutter, hoping for a sighting of a better education for All Our Children.
Trump, who may be named 'Wilbur' by his affectionate bacon supporters, seems to have a knack, pip and squeak for firing rather than hiring. After an uproar over children being separated from their family, if you were Sessions, it might be time to resign.
Trump attended The Wharton School in keeping with the Jones, the author's family name, and became a great casino manager. Now according to claims by Omarosa, the president has been calling his prime choice of secretary of education with unfortunate names.
The local news in our neck-of-the-woods has noted lower school attendance; some courses are being dropped for lack of funds, and grizzly bears are not in danger of being greeted by students armed with rifles.
Let's get serious. Is there anyone in this Trump administration, working with a full deck of cards. This is not the time to be shy, where our future generation is left in debt and worthless degrees.
113
If you're not for cheating the little guy/gal and making a profit for yourself at the expense of those without power or wealth, you won't make it in the Trump firmament.
The Trump firmament is not to be confused with heaven or the heavens (aka the sky). Heavens to Betsey, who would want to know anything about our planet so we could keep it for our children's future? Not her, not her brother Erik Prince the mercenary profiteer, and certainly not Trump. Expertise not welcome, and merit quickly shown the door.
God has forbidden stewardship in the Republican side of Congress. It's all about protecting profits as a sign of god's favor, and trashing our hospitable earth, which is showing a few signs of being fed up (or used up, if you don't like the anthropomorphization of our overburdened home planet).
165
Those powerful wealthy Republicans encourage the confusion of ego and prejudice with god. The idea of the "still small voice" is gone; it has to be loud, vulgar, and self-satisfied.
62
It does seem that Trump has reached the point of not being able to fire anyone for lack of replacements. That, or he could be dreaming of a Big Firing after the Big Red Wave in November when the Best People will be clamoring for the Best Jobs.
43
@David Martin, you make a good point about lack of replacements, but I don't think Trump has EVER fired ANYONE in person, except on the Apprentice, and that show was SCRIPTED for him. He couldn't remember his lines so they gave him a teleprompter disguised as an iPhone to read "you're fired!" from.
At best, Trump tries to get his lackeys to do his firing for him. At worst, if he can't find anyone willing, he fires by tweet.
7
Think of the howl of outrage from Ms. DeVos if For-Profit Universities were required to state in their advertising whether they were fully accredited or not. But that requirement, in addition to PSA's explaining what accreditation meant, would hopefully limit the damage they've done to those paying for, but not receiving, a "college" education from one of these fly-by-night scavengers.
105
Conservatives wanted to get rid of the Department of Education. DeVos as Secretary is the next best thing, a promoter of no education.
227
@serban
No. She's not a promoter of no education, she's a promoter of private profit from education. I bet Pearson, the big test and text, monopoly, loves De Vos.
15
@Sharon Promoting profit driven fraudulent Trump like colleges is promoting no education.
I know you were not looking for comments about your grandsons philosophy degree from a state university. But let me speak to that point and your point about for profit universities. I’m now retired, but I had a fulfilling 35 year career in international engineering and construction, all with a degree in philosophy from a state university. A philosophy degree leaves you with critical thinking skills and the ability and inclination to analyze and solve problems and challenges. From what I’ve read over the years, for profit universities are only interested in the bottom line profit potential, and thus don’t deliver the quality of education that they claim. There must be rigorous criteria for evaluating the efficacy of any college or university. While there may be some students and graduates who were well served by their for profit university, most for profit universities don’t pass scrutiny.
264
@Jack Castner I agree that a quality liberal arts degree fosters critical thinking skills and problem solving abilities. However, the time has long since passed when such a degree was an appropriate qualification for the job market. In the 1980s, I was advised to study whatever I wanted in college by folks who grew up in the 1960s. The advice was stale then... Today, unless you're getting a philosophy degree from an elite university in preparation for recruitment by the Big Three consulting firms, you'll probably be working retail.
15
RE: Philosophy degrees
Not so, philosophy undergraduates (who finish) end up making more than some STEM undergraduates. In fact, between philosophy's historical prerequisite major for Law and its desirability on the job market (re: critical thinking), there are many reasons to do a Philosophy BA. Now, unless you're likely to go into research, teaching or another related field, there is a set of diminishing economic returns from MA to PhD.
24
@Jack Castner
"Education" and "training" are two different things. (I was able to train my uneducable dog.) The denigration of liberal arts degrees earned at colleges still worthy of the name has become the mantra of the right, perhaps in an attempt to entice as many as possible away from intellectual pursuits and into the conservative world of know-nothingism.
Many of my colleagues scoffed when I told them that one of my children was majoring in Philosophy. His other credits included everything from writing to Calculus to film criticism. He eventually became a member of the sound design team at a major tech corporation. His grandfather was a trained accountant and made a good living, but he spent a good part of his life punching figures into an adding machine.
4
These for profit universities should be called alternative schools of educations, teaching things like the Grand Canyon was created by the Great Flood, and man has always existed just as he is now.
This fits right in with the Amway theory of alternative product manufacturing. It tells you their product are superior to those of companies like P&G who dilute their detergent with poorer ingredients, and Amway has a special group of scientists better than those big multinationals. Of course you only buy Amway's products from one of their distributors on the pyramid of special distributors, its products can not be found in those commercial stores that sell inferior products, where you compare prices and ingredients.
These schools have their students take out loans from the U.S. Dept of Ed, they go into debt for tens of thousands, to get something called a degree, or a piece of paper that says they have one. Those degrees do not seem to get them into grad schools like Berkley, Stanford, Yale, Harvard. If you know of any PhD Or MA, Mb theses from one of these students let us know.
The classic example was tRump U, where students paid tens of thousands for courses with plagiarized textbooks, it should have been named Swindle U, all paid for by you, the tax payer.
We can start a De Vos U of education where a degree, Masters of Business Swindling is offered, a MBS.
204
@David Underwood very enjoyable. It took my mind off the Tragedy of Trump for 15 seconds. Thanks for your witty summation .
3
The only thing worse than being defrauded by a for-profit university is being incarcerated in a for-profit prison.
Trump University, lest we forget, was a wonderful example of the glories of for-profit privatization.
What’s next? Privatization of what remains of the social safety net initiated during the New Deal? Of the Veterans’ Hospitals?
Of the military?
What Betsy DeVoss has done to undermine public education could no doubt be surpassed by her brother Eric Prince’s undermining of a military manned by citizen soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines.
353
@Andrew G. Bjelland, Sr.
Actually, a large part of the military HAS been outsourced to for-profit contractors as well as for-profit companies whose main business is to evaluate, review, and negotiate the contracts between the military and the vast numbers of contractors who work in almost every aspect of the military, except perhaps the boots on the ground soldiers.
2
Outside of her title, what does Betsy DeVos have to do with any form of formal education? Money talks, so she will keep her position until Trump is no longer an acting president. This will allow Trump to re-open his University and rip off more people who think they will learn form the so called businessman. They will be separated from their money and have nothing to show for it. And that is also true for many of the for-profit universities that DeVos is allowing to re-open or open for the first time. No standards required.
85
Excellent column, Gail, but this it shows how serious American media failure has become.
You won't find out about these white collar criminals on TV or most print media, including MSNBC or PBS. It's because they are hookers, too- their own segments might not feature ads for ripoff universities do, but media companies all own divisions that do.
Similarly, the revered lefties Chris Hayes and Rachel Maddow
almost never talk about global warming. Too many fossil fuel advertisers.
Meanwhile, a good chunk of Americans believe that global warming is a hoax, and no media company addresses this survival issue squarely. We need you to step up here too, Gail.
46
@Mike Roddy - being sour about your allies is a great way to enable your enemies. Yes, we need to hear more about our planet, but Maddow and PBS, like others you condemn, do bring it up frequently.
77
@Mike Roddy
When I read responses like this I think of North Korea or China. One no longer has to read/debate about global warming- we are living it.
6
@Mike Roddy Mike you don't watch Chris Hayes and Rachel Maddow so PLEASE don't pretend you do. They Do talk about everything all the time unlike so many others. People would benefit if they tuned in to them every nite. Just sayin.
7
Higher education financing problems in this country, while exacerbated by De Vos, have been pretty much created by the US. The US guarantees student loans made by banks and other financial institutions, ostensibly to make the interest rates cheaper. But the banks love to make these loans so there must be a profitable spread in there for them. Now, if a student defaults on such a loan, it is not dischargeable in bankruptcy (one of the few unsecured loans which are not dischargeable). But, there is no problem for the bank because of the US guarantee. It gets paid in full. The student and the taxpayer suffer, not the college who already received the loan proceeds. And these are the loans made for students to go to Harvard, NYU, Ohio State, UCLA, etc.; not your De Vos for-profit colleges.
Maybe if she really wanted to fix something she could look at this huge student loan program. No, on second thought; let's just confine her work to Michigan and her yacht when it is in US waters.
28
@James Ricciardi
Let's just keep it on her yacht.
4
@James Ricciardi: it is a classic example of "socialize the losses....but privatize the PROFITS".
But who demanded and still wants government-backed student loans? LIBERALS! Democrats! they LOVE this system, which THEY CREATED -- and which has singlehandedly driven college costs to the moon, because the COLLEGES KNOW that you will borrow any amount you must in order to get that precious degree.
1
We have lost our way on education. Not too long ago, the enduring truths about college were (1) It was difficult and (2) At the public universities at least, it was affordable. Even as it has gotten by some measures less difficult at many universities, college has also gotten far less affordable. And in the cases of elite public universities, it's actually gotten even more difficult as well.
So the for-profit schools, like Trump himself, offer what seems to be an irresistible "deal," including employment upon graduation as well as low stress classes. No surprise that any deal with Trump turns out bad and there shouldn't be any surprises when for-profit universities turn out to be swindles. Unfortunately, when for-profits receive seals of approval from public officials, the corruption that is Trump becomes a national scandal, as rank and odorous as any in history.
We have to hope that by now the nation's people have gotten enough education from the Trump administration to have learned their lesson and are ready to throw the bums out, beginning next November. Maybe then we can look at real reform in higher education, beginning with lower costs.
49
The contribution to our country’s generation of wealth by schools is the educated students. The people who argue that only the selfish pursuit of money produces sincere work have concluded that for profit schools have to be the best ones because they exist to make money. Actually seeing how they perform is considered to be unnecessary. But what happens with these schools is that once the student loans are given, these for profits have got as much compensation as they will ever get and repaying the loans has nothing to do with them. The incentives are all poor. Actually providing educations to the students is all costs and whether the students actually learn anything is more of an externality than crucial to their business models. They have an easy time finding students who are ambitious but never did well in school before and are ill prepared but who qualify for student loans. These are the students most likely to be unable to repay loans. They are less likely to graduate and will not have improved their ability to make more money. It is these who have been scammed by schools that collect loans but do not show graduates who have benefitted. DeVos is betraying tax payers and students both by her silly attitude towards profits and education.
61
DeVos should be investigated to see if she's receiving kickbacks or other valuable items in exchange for going easy on the phony for-profit colleges.
237
@Linda
Sounds great! By whom?
2
Thanks Gail for bringing to the light the horrible plight of today's students, no matter where they are in the U.S.
In Enlightened California our Dear and Blessed Governor unilaterally decided that our California Community Colleges should migrate online.
Let me tell. There is a huge difference between the quality of an in person college class taught by an instructor/professor who has to answer to an entire field of study let alone his Dean Boss and the STATE , and an online college course.
It is NOT old school VS. new school.
IT'S school or the internet.
The for fee colleges are very deceptive and they all should be shut down period.
128
Al Franken questioned Betsy DeVos during her confirmation hearings on using testing to measure growth versus proficiency, a central question in education policy:
DeVos: “I think, if I’m understanding your question correctly around proficiency, I would also correlate it to competency and mastery, so that each student is measured according to the advancement they’re making in each subject area.”
Franken: “Well, that’s growth. That’s not proficiency. I’m talking about the debate between proficiency and growth and what your thoughts are on that.”
DeVos said she was “just asking to clarify,” prompting Franken to follow up:
Franken: “It surprises me that you don’t know this issue, and Mr. Chairman, I think this a good reason for us to have more questions.”
How right he was. One of the many reasons we miss Al Franken.
1423
@NA: Let's hope Franken runs and wins again. He is sorely missed.
37
@NA I haven't been able to forgive Kirsten Gillebrand for hounding him out of the Senate. I don't know if it was simply ill-conceived or something more nefarious, but it was not good leadership. Al Franken is not the only one who lost out. We all lost his gutsy & intelligent voice.
23
@Sheila Yes
Betsy DeVos pretends to be Christian, like many fake Christians in the Republican Party.
Even us heathen atheists understand that being a Christian - and being a decent human being - entails helping the least among us - the sick, the poor, the disadvantaged, and those who never got a break in life.
When Betsy DeVos and her staff of Amway educators roll out the carpet for for-profit education grifters, swindlers and Snake Oil sommeliers, she's not hurting the middle class or the rich who generally have the good sense and counsel to stay away from diploma mills, she's hurting poor people, single mothers, military veterans and teenagers desperate to find a way out of American minimum wage hell, by aiding and abetting a fake education degree with a giant mortgage attached to it.
For-profit colleges advertise on daytime and late-night TV to the unemployed with creepy infomercials about their fake universities.
Associate’s degree and certificate programs at for-profits cost four times more than at community colleges, AND as a bonus, you get a WORSE education.
Critics have called for-profit education "subprime education", harvesting uninformed student borrowers and loading them with up with debt they cannot afford.
For-profit education is the height of immorality, so it's appropriate that Trump and his fake-phony-fraudulent-Christian Amway Queen Betsy DeVos are shamelessly championing it as they abuse the weakest members of society.
Jesus would throw up all over Betsy DeVos.
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@Socrates
Many years ago I accompanied two friends who knew the Amway founder when they visited his yacht. I have to inform you that the yacht had its own chaplain. (He was not very impressive - perhaps he got his training at a for-profit theological college.)
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@Socrates
Socrates, the quality of the education at any open enrollment for fee purported educational institution is not "worse" it simply is poor, if nill.
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The 1647 Massachusetts law that mandated public education was called "The Old Deluder Satan Act". Ignorance was regarded as Satanic. The original 1642 law took schooling away from the church, and the 1647 law forced towns to fund education including establishing grammar schools to prepare students to attend the university. It also was required to prepare students and apprentices for some lawful calling or employment.
Thanks to Trump and DeVos, looks like the Old Deluder has won.
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The policies of Betsy de Vos and Donald Trump do not reflect the will of the people. Poll after poll shows that Americans support progressive policies. And the demographics of the Republican Party is shrinking. How is it then that extreme rightwing Republicans hold the largest majorities at the state and national level not seen since the 1920s?
The problem with our elections is that the vote-counting system is undemocratic. Our ballots, the memory cards, and source code have been deemed to be "corporate property." The system has been set up for concealment.
Jimmy Carter and James Baker stated in their report for the nonpartisan Commission on Federal Election Reform that “There is no reason to trust insiders in the election industry any more than in other industries.”
Europe Rejects Digital Voting Machines https://tinyurl.com/yczjwo64
“One doesn't have to be a conspiracy theorist or a Luddite to understand the fallibility of electronic voting machines. We take on this security risk in banking, shopping and e-mailing, but the ballot box must be perfectly sealed. At least that's what European voters seem to be saying. Electronic voting machines do not meet this standard.”
Harper’s Magazine: How to Rig an Election https://tinyurl.com/y9xx63f6
“If we Americans fail to act to secure our elections, as Bogart warned at the end of Casablanca: ‘You will regret it. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow. But soon, and for the rest of your life.’” — Victoria Collier
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Millions of ex-felons are ineligible to vote, yet voting machine companies have ex-felons running our elections. Victoria Collier points out that “many of the key staffers behind our major voting-machine companies have been accused or convicted of a dizzying array of white-collar crimes, including conspiracy, bribery, bid rigging, computer fraud, tax fraud, stock fraud, mail fraud, extortion, and drug trafficking.”
CEO Wally O'Dell wrote in a 2003 fundraiser letter for Bush that Diebold was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president in 2004." A documentary about the Kerry/Bush election and the many irregularities and red flags:
Uncounted: The New Math of American Elections https://tinyurl.com/y84c3o8o
The Emmy Nominated HBO Documentary: Hacking Democracy https://tinyurl.com/y7mydv7z
“America, the world’s greatest democracy and at its heart the vote, the will of the people. But how do you know if the vote is counted correctly and if you don’t know then what have you got, democracy?
“This is the story of a small group of citizens headed by a grandmother from Seattle. They set out on a journey to ask one question, How does America count its votes? What they found was secrecy, votes in the trash, and how to change the course of history.”
Bev Harris of “Hacking Democracy” and founder of Black Box Voting: “When people see what’s really going on there is no way we will allow this to continue.”
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@RLSY--The solution is simple, and cheap--vote by mail. You have a hard paper copy and minimal costs, even if you send out postage-paid envelopes.
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@Susan Minnesota has a paper trail, which has been called on more than once in the past decade for recounts.
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Gail, with the way things have been going in the Rolling Trumpster Fire's Grifters-R-Us Cabinet of Complicity, and keeping in mind DeVos's family, we think you should consider some deep investigative reporting as to whether she's been forcing her minions at the Education Dept. to attend Amway presentations, or whether her brother, Erik Prince (of Blackwater fame) has been getting any lucrative Ed. Dept. contracts.
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@R
I would second that. There should be dozens of investigative reporters delving into the backgrounds of all that are in, or have passed through this administration, but alas we must report on the latest 140 characters and their meanings.
Sigh...
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@R. Law Actually, Prince is going to get a war contract. Privitize the wars in the middle east. Maybe his army will take people with bone spurs?
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@R. Law
Actually Erik is busy on TV promoting his group privatizing the US Army presence in Afghanistan.
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If the situation wasn't so sad (the loss of opportunity for our young people) this would be a humorous commentary. DeVoss is condemning those bilked out of large amounts of money to a lifetime of debt. And in most cases educational loans can not be expunged through bankruptcy, unlike loans for casinos.
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@BigFootMN: And is it a coincidence that educational loans can't be discharged in bankruptcy? The answer is obvious!
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@Thomas Zaslavsky
Clinton did that one. Funny how people who won't be affected by things like that think it's a fine rule.
Another rich vs poor thing, I guess.
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@BigFootMN Transfer of wealth from the middle class to the rich. GOP policy for decades.
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Not everything in this universe should be privatized and for profit. Things like health care, education, the justice/prison system, the military or even government itself. Inserting profit between you and the end result, simply means it will cost more and be less efficient.
The public school system needs to be drastically upgraded - everyone on all sides agree upon that. The problem is that again, if you put profit in between you and a degree, (especially one that is in the end, unaccredited) simply means that you are going to be a servant to that debt for a good part of your life. (unlike white collar business people that can write it off, or declare bankruptcy multiple times to the tune of billions)
We need to expand the school year away from an ancient agrarian model and make it more flexible. We obviously need to upgrade the infrastructure of schools themselves and make them modern cathedrals of learning where we all pray to education. (take away religious tax exemption and put the money into education - pays for itself)
Finally, we need to pay teachers much better and hold them accountable. That means again, being flexible and not continuously preparing students to only do well on tests. Critical thinking is required on all fronts.
Perhaps Mrs. Devos can sell a few yachts and donate the proceeds to the cause ?
Addition through subtraction. A wonderful theme for the students.
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@FunkyIrishman
Have you ever stopped for a second to think about why the sectors run by your beloved non-profits (Healthcare, education) are the ones sucking the middle class dry with ever increasing prices while providing sub-standard results?
Meanwhile in for-profit land consumers get better/ cheaper products as an everyday expectation.
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@VG
You hit the nail on the head
Private Contractors used for caging immigrant children and
Private jails are excellent examples
Disaster is Betsy DeVos
This rolling stone gathered no moss,
No background in Ed,
Don's campaign she fed
Her Cabinet post is our loss.
Separation, Religion and State,
A mistake that she hopes to abate,
Her love of schools, charter,
Adamantly won't barter,
Her acuity, is second rate.
For profit schools, will not burden,
Critics cannot get a word in,
Her ideas are strong
Despite being wrong,
Her Cabinet post she's absurd in.
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@Larry Eisenberg
Dear Larry, you have made my day.....and it's not even 8 a.m. yet as I type.
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@Larry Eisenberg - your poetry is phenomenal - I look forward to your posts every article I read! Thank you for your insights about politics in such a humorous yet serious way.
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@Larry Eisenberg
Come on, NYT, how can this NOT be a Time’s Pick?
Thank you (again), Larry!
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