She's indeed one of Trump's worst appointments. Corrupt, incompetent, ineffectual. Should he win reelection, she's my #1 on the list of cabinet members that have to be replaced.




Yes, yes, I know what you're thinking... inb4 "all of Trump's cabinet is incompetent, corrupt and ineffectual".

those thoughts are not mutually exclusive, you know? you might actually be right about her being the worst of the bunch...

DeVos is the most malicious and corrupt. Carson is the most ineffectual. Both absolute disasters for their position. DeVos is a champion of charter vouchers, which is a band aid on a gaping wound. And Carson's qualifications are quite literally "lived in public housing".

Charters as a whole aren't more effective than public schools, and if you include the data from charter schools that close within the first few years after doing basically nothing for the kids (which is a SHOCKINGLY HIGH percentage) they're way way way way worse.

So... charter vouchers are more like rubbing salt in a gaping wound and trying to convince people the salt will fix it.

This post was edited by Thor123422 on Mar 3 2020 10:26am

what a crazy concept, charter schools take on large numbers of problem children and special ed students then perform worse than a population of public schools where the percent of such children are much lower.

the point of a charter school isn't necessarily to educate children for standardized tests at as good of a rate as public schools. its to reduce special ed requirements for public schools and localize support in an environment not as hampered by legal red tape and without the overbearing curriculum requirements that special ed students dont conform well to.

studying charter schools for performance of the students on tests is like checking how much citric acid is in an apple.

I probably don't have the full picture, but don't charter schools have to use a lottery to get students? I wasn't under the impression that charters are preferentially taking problem children or special ed students, I thought it was random.

in some areas they give out vouchers by lottery. but no, charters in many places gain students by petitioning parents to divert their students to the program. many times with the blessing of the school itself, as it keep special ed numbers down. my wife's early childhood (3-4 years old) special ed program works hand in hand with a charter school that actually leases rooms from the school, so it's in district. they convinced the school to go with this plan by guaranteeing 3 out of 4 students would be special ed. it's a good move for both sides, as public schools fail miserably with many special ed students because of the red tape and curriculum requirements, as well as in many cases forced inclusion which does more to normalize special ed students to regular ed students than it does to educate the special ed kids.

now, to be fair, when DeVos champions charter schools its to soft-redistrict for whites who's school districts have been desegregated. she's not in it for the right reasons, and likely has the ulterior motive of profiting from charter schools and private schools.

As high as general comparisons can probably go are state level. I'm realizing now that I was thinking of methodologies that were restricted to Ohio and Pennsylvania, where they've had absolutely abysmal results.

It's good if charters have applications where they can take on unique challenges, but yeah, the kind of charters where it's just "send your kids to a school thats not run by the government" don't have a place in our system IMO.

I would say the main qualification for Carson is that he's black and can serve as this administration's token ......

it's ironic as well, since its right wingers trying to divert taxpayer funds to untested ideology schools and get around paying for a private school equivalent.

Charter schools can be done really well and be a great resource, or they can be done wrong and be a failure like what you're accustomed to. and of course their lack of structure can be good or bad, ive heard of charter schools where the underlying idea that started it was "how would kids perform if they didnt have desks and could sit wherever they want?". and its basically just a school with beanbag chairs. ranging all the way up to schools like my wife works with, which are a really good tool for special ed.



most definitely.

This post was edited by thesnipa on Mar 3 2020 11:54am