Al Franken stated, “It’s not a job for amateurs who don’t know the first thing about education.”
Franken also stated, “This is a subject that has been debated in the education community for years,” Franken said. “It surprises me that you don’t know this issue.”
What I know of the issue is that the U.S. spends an average of $11,000+ annually for every child in school — far above the global average — yet still ranks below the following countries in Math, Reading, and Science:
Czech Republic
Chile
New Zealand
Romania
Israel
Singapore
Poland
Peru
Chinese Taipei
Ireland
So, is our education system broken? Given the massive spending and less than stellar performance, YES, IT IS BROKEN, and clearly, the Demoncrappic paradigm of throwing more money at the problem will NOT solve it.
Lauren Camera, an education reporter at U.S. News & World Report, also a 2013 Spencer Education Fellow at Columbia University’s School of Journalism, noted that “increasing access to early childhood education” and “improving training and professional development for teachers and boosting the rigor of academic standards” are proven approaches for countries trying to curb their numbers of low performers.
Betsy DeVos’ approach to education includes fostering charter schools and alternatives such as the Montessori approach for young learners, while improving public school education along the lines mentioned above.
Let’s see how much DeVos knows about education while simultaneously learning whether Franken knows anything about Betsy DeVos or whether he’s merely talking out his backside:
DeVos is well-educated:
– DeVos was educated at the Holland Christian High School, a private school located in her home town of Holland, Michigan.
– She graduated from Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration and political science, and was “involved with campus politics,” according to Philanthropy magazine
DeVos has good moral principles:
– DeVos grew up as a member of the Christian Reformed Church in North America. She has been a member and elder of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids.
DeVos has long been active in politics:
– Since 1982, DeVos has participated in the Michigan Republican Party.
– Bill Ballenger, editor of the newsletter Inside Michigan Politics and a former Republican state senator, called DeVos “a good behind-the-scenes organizer and a good fund raiser” as well as “a true believer in core Republican issues that leave nobody in doubt on where she stands.”
DeVos is a successful businesswoman in her own right:
– DeVos is chairwoman of the Windquest Group, a privately held operating group that invests in technology, manufacturing, and clean energy. DeVos and her husband founded it in 1989.
DeVos is a philanthropist:
– The Dick & Betsy DeVos Family Foundation was launched in 1989. The foundation’s giving, according to its website, is motivated by faith, and “is centered in cultivating leadership, accelerating transformation and leveraging support in five areas”, namely education, community, arts, justice, and leadership. The foundation’s donations have been focused largely on funding Christian organizations and Christian private schools.
DeVos fully supports the performing arts:
– DeVos was appointed by President George W. Bush to the board of directors of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 2004, and served until 2010. While she was on the board, she and her husband funded a center to teach arts managers and boards of directors how to fundraise and manage their cultural institutions.
– In 2009, DeVos and her family founded ArtPrize, an international art competition held in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
DeVos has long been involved in education activism (reforming our broken education system):
– DeVos believes education in the United States should be opened up to for-profit charter schools, and she has stated that education is “a closed system, a closed industry, a closed market. It’s a monopoly, a dead end.” DeVos believes that opening up the education market will offer parents increased choice, a view that critics call a drive to privatize the American public education system.
– DeVos is known as a “a fierce proponent of school vouchers” that would allow students to attend private schools with public funding.
Her approach to “opening up” education exactly mirrors what we know of business economics, that competition is GOOD for the consumer, as it forces the producer to get it right. Monopolies and oligopolies suffer from little to no competition, which results in a serious disincentive to innovate, be competitive, or improve. Right now, despite the fact that our education system is the most highly funded of all, we’re not among the top performers. That is BROKEN. Opening up our education system to new schools with challenging and inspiring curricula is GOOD for America. Far from being left in the dust, public schools here in Colorado have greatly benefitted from Colorado’s full support of charter schools and school vouchers.
DeVos fully supports school choice, as do most parents:
– DeVos served as chairwoman of the board of Alliance for School Choice. Her other activities on behalf of public-school reform have included membership on the boards of directors of the Advocates for School Choice, the American Education Reform Council, and the Education Freedom Fund.
– During the 1990s, she served on the boards of Children First America and the American Education Reform Council, which sought to expand school choice through vouchers and tax credits. She and her husband worked for the successful passage of Michigan’s first charter-school bill in 1993.
All of the above doesn’t cover a third of Betsy DeVos’ efforts towards helping improve America’s system of education.
BOTTOM LINE, Al Franken… Betsy DeVos has CORRECTLY identified what’s WRONG with America’s education system and has, for nearly thirty years, worked TIRELESSLY to correct it. She is by far the BEST choice for the
Meanwhile…
“Franken’s daughter, Thomasin, is director of extended learning at DC Prep, ‘A Charter School Where Learning Has No Limits.’ “
Gee… I wonder what she thinks of her blow-hard father?
Franken was elected as a member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL) is a social liberal political party in the U.S. state of Minnesota.
It looks to me, however, that he’s spent a great deal of time in comedy and acting. Perhaps he should stick to those endeavors, instead.
