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Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Work to Stop the DeVos Nomination to the Department of Education

You may already know that Betsy DeVos has been nominated to be the U.S. Secretary of Education. The confirmation hearing is scheduled for next week, currently scheduled for January 17th, 2017.

Senator Elizabeth Warren has written a letter with a lot of detail about DeVos' record. Read it here.

Here's Mark Maynard's summary of her letter. He's got pretty pictures.

The Network for Public Education is (and I am) asking you to take action to oppose the DeVos nomination.

As NPE writes:

Below are committee members, along with their Washington phone number, fax numbers and local phone numbers. Often Washington numbers are busy. 
Please be sure to call every member prior to the January 17 hearing. 

Sample script: 
My name is xxxx and I am calling to let the Senator know that I would like him/her to oppose the appointment of Betsy DeVos for Secretary of Education.
DeVos and her family heavily lobbied the Michigan legislature to shield the charter industry from greater oversight. She pushes for-profit charter schools and online schools, which consistently fail the students that they are supposed to serve.
I want my tax dollars to stay in my community to support my public schools.  Betsy DeVos is bad for American education. She is unqualified to serve as Secretary of Education. 
(If you want to say more, read Sen. Warren's letter for lots of detail and ideas.)


US Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP) Committee



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4 comments:

  1. Although he's not on the committee, your local-to-MI readers should also call Michigan Senator Gary Peters. According to a news report on Michigan Radio in the past couple of days, he hasn't made up his mind whether or not to support her nomination. (I just looked at MI Radio web site and couldn't find a story about it, otherwise I would paste in the link. It was one of those local news blurbs at the top of the hour.)

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  2. That's distressing news about Peters. Thanks for letting us know.

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  3. The vote has now been postponed to Jan 31. Senators Stabenow and Peters have publicly announced their "no" vote for DeVos. The state board of ed president disagrees with her (http://www.freep.com/story/news/education/2016/11/23/betsy-devos-trump-secretary/94357370/). The East Lansing School Board has issued a statement denouncing DeVos (http://www.eastlansinginfo.org/content/east-lansing-school-board-denounces-betsy-devos-us-secretary-education). How do we get the AAPS Board to publicly stand against her appointment? In my mind, many voices are influential, and the stronger (louder / more influential) the voice the better.

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  4. The Ann Arbor school board unanimously voted to oppose the DeVos nomination yesterday. Thank them!

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