Congress
Look At These Nice Things In Recent Funding Bills! Just Look At Them!
Happy normal things!
January 05, 2021 02:22 PM
Two big recent spending bills had a couple of neat provisions in them that we wouldn't want to go overlooked. The defense spending bill (NDAA) that Congress passed Friday by overriding Donald Trump's veto includes a significant measure to fight corruption, and the $1.4 trillion omnibus spending bill that passed just before Christmas (and which Donald Trump eventually signed after being a dick about it) includes a hugely important provision restoring the ability for incarcerated people to get Pell grants while they're still serving their prison terms. Good government just might break out all over at this rate. (Fine, we'll take "might happen more than sporadically.")
<p>First up, the NDAA included a little measure called the "Corporate Transparency Act," which is aimed at making money-laundering and other malfeasance harder by banning anonymous shell companies. As Vox <a href="https://www.vox.com/22188223/congress-anti-money-laundering-anonymous-shell-companies-ban-defense-bill" target="_blank">explains</a>, they're commonly used to cover evidence of money laundering and other criminal enterprises. </p><blockquote> If you're a corrupt foreign official or drug trafficker, there's a pretty easy way to protect your illicit cash: create an anonymous shell company.<br><br>You form a shell company — meaning a business that exists only on paper, with no employees, no products it makes or sells, no revenue, nothing except maybe a bank account and some assets — but you do it without disclosing your (the owner's) real name, offering a convenient way to launder your money and evade law enforcement in the United States.</blockquote><p>Shell corporations will remain legal, but now the people creating them will have to provide the name of the owner and other information. At <em>Forbes, </em>Patriotic Millionaires chair Morris Pearl <a href="https://fortune.com/2020/12/26/ndaa-2021-shell-companies-corporate-transparency-act/" target="_blank">points out</a> that, until now, every state has had tougher identity requirements for getting a library card than to create a shell corporation, and that criminal investigations regularly "go cold as soon as they run into one of these shell companies." </p><blockquote>Those using and abusing anonymous shells to cloak themselves in anonymity run the gamut. From tax cheats hiding their finances and bleeding local coffers dry to drug cartels flooding American streets with opiates turning to anonymous shells to launder their profits, a wide range of criminal forces have used anonymous companies to mask their tracks.</blockquote><p> The new law should eliminate one of the most common tools used by corrupt actors, both domestically and internationally; Pearl calls the new law "the biggest anti-corruption step the U.S. has taken in decades." Good! Now, if you want to try to get away with underhanded financial schemes, you'll have to get yourself elected president. (There's a <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/is-this-the-real-reason-why-trumps-freaking-out-about-the-defense-bill" target="_blank">persuasive theory</a> that the shell company amendment was the real reason Trump came up with all kinds of crazy reasons to veto the NDAA. We for one are persuaded!) </p><p>Our other Nice Thing, the "Restoring Education and Learning (REAL) Act," was <a href="https://www.schatz.senate.gov/press-releases/schatz-legislation-to-restore-educational-opportunities-for-those-incarcerated-and-improve-public-safety-set-to-become-law" target="_blank">included in the omnibus spending bill </a>that passed December 21 along with the coronavirus stimmy bill. Written by Sen Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), and all bipartisanly cosponsored by Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Dick Durbin (D-Illinois), the law restores the ability of incarcerated people to qualify for Pell grants to help pay for higher education. </p><p>This is a big freaking deal, and it eliminates one of the more awful provisions of the 1994 crime bill. From today's perspective, it's hard to believe Democrats were so desperate then to appear "tough on crime" that they were willing to eliminate one of the proven means of actually preventing recidivism. Oh, but people in prison were <em>bad</em>, so no college aid for them, and we sure taught them a lesson by making it far harder for them to get jobs after serving their time, now didn't we? </p><p>As Schatz <a href="https://www.schatz.senate.gov/press-releases/schatz-legislation-to-restore-educational-opportunities-for-those-incarcerated-and-improve-public-safety-set-to-become-law" target="_blank">points out,</a> the elimination of Pell grants for incarcerated people didn't just hurt prisoners; the loss of that funding stream also led to "a significant drop in the number of education programs in prisons." Schatz also calls attention to a<a href="https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR266.html" target="_blank"> RAND Corporation study</a> which found that</p><blockquote><span></span>Inmates who participate in correctional education programs had a 43 percent lower odds of recidivating than those who did not. This translates to a reduction in the risk of recidivating of 13 percentage points.</blockquote><p>The study also found that once out of prison, the participants in educational programs had a 13 percent better chance of finding employment. </p><p>The full repeal of that part of the crime bill follows a 2016 Obama administration pilot <a href="https://twitter.com/chiraagbains/status/1346138582134751234" target="_blank">program </a>called "Second Chance Pell" that allowed some 17,000 people to enroll in college classes. Heck, that was one of the few Obama programs that Trump <a href="https://apnews.com/article/technology-prisons-legislation-coronavirus-pandemic-health-eb69014f6cc85f8384c180a441d94463" target="_blank">actually kept</a>. Trump's Education Department expanded it, and outgoing Education Secretary Betsy DeVos called on Congress to make the program permanent. </p><p>We're guessing, and you can hardly blame us, that she thought some of the grants would make their way to for-profit colleges. </p><p>Other parts<a href="https://apnews.com/article/technology-prisons-legislation-coronavirus-pandemic-health-eb69014f6cc85f8384c180a441d94463" target="_blank"> of the educational reform included in the measure will simplify the process of applying for federal student aid, cutting t</a>he number of questions on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (the dreaded FAFSA) from 108 to 36, and simplifying the verification process by allowing the Ed Department to get some financial information directly from the IRS instead of making families provide it. </p><p>The maximum amount of Pell grants was also increased by $150, to a bit under $6,500 per student. Joe Biden campaigned on doubling the size of Pell grants, as well as making them more widely available. </p><p>So, hey, Georgia, if you guys could flip control of the Senate today, that would make all this easier! </p><p> [<a href="https://www.vox.com/22188223/congress-anti-money-laundering-anonymous-shell-companies-ban-defense-bill" target="_blank">Vox </a>/ <a href="https://fortune.com/2020/12/26/ndaa-2021-shell-companies-corporate-transparency-act/" target="_blank">Forbes </a>/ <a href="https://apnews.com/article/technology-prisons-legislation-coronavirus-pandemic-health-eb69014f6cc85f8384c180a441d94463" target="_blank">AP </a>/ <a href="https://www.schatz.senate.gov/press-releases/schatz-legislation-to-restore-educational-opportunities-for-those-incarcerated-and-improve-public-safety-set-to-become-law" target="_blank">Sen. Brian Schatz</a> / Image: Screenshot, <a href="https://www.pbs.org/video/college-behind-bars-part-1-no-one-ever-taught-me-any-of-that/" target="_blank"><em>College Behind Bars,</em></a> PBS]</p><p>Yr Wonkette is funded entirely by reader donations. If you could grant us $5 to $10 a month, we'll help you become higher and more educated. </p><p></p><p><a href="https://amzn.to/33mKzZe" target="_blank">Do your Amazon shopping through this link, because reasons</a>.</p><p></p><p></p><form name="donation" method="post" class="donation-form"><p class="subheadline">How often would you like to donate?</p><div class="form-row row--plan"><label class="plan-type__label"><input type="radio" name="plan_type" value="once" class="plan-type" required="" checked> Just once
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Education
Shiny Normal Thing! Joe Biden Picks A Teacher For Education Secretary
Not a billionaire Amway heiress in sight.
December 24, 2020 09:21 AM
Joe Biden made good on his campaign promise to name an actual teacher to lead the Department of Education. On Tuesday, Biden announced he'd picked Connecticut's education commissioner, Miguel Cardona, for the job, saying Cardona "understands that the deep roots of inequity that exist as a source of our persistent opportunities gaps. He understands the transformative power that comes from investing in education."
We'd just like to thank Biden for making it once more possible for us to type the phrase "Secretary of Education" without violently retching. Cardona seems like a hell of a good guy to clean away the mess created by Donald Trump's Ed secretary, Betsy DeVos, who seemed to consider public schools mostly a source of funding for her mission of privatizing education wherever possible.
<p>At the presser announcing his nomination, Cardona <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/22/politics/miguel-cardona-education-secretary-biden/index.html" target="_blank">said </a>that, as an educator and as a parent, he' recognizes how awful the last year has been for kids, parents, and schools: </p><blockquote>"It's taken some of our most painful, longstanding disparities and wrenched them open even wider," Cardona said. [...] He said that "for too many students, your zip code and your skin color remain the best predictor of the opportunities you'll have in your lifetime.<br><br>He added, "Though we are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel, we also know that this crisis is ongoing, that we will carry its impacts for years to come and that the problems and inequities that have plagued our educational system since long before Covid will still be with us even after the virus is gone."</blockquote><p>It's really going to be good to have someone at the Education Department who understands that the problems of public schools won't be fixed by giving up on public education and shifting resources to private outfits that serve only a fraction of kids. </p><p>Cardona's own story is about as inspiring as you could want: As a child — he <a href="https://www.courant.com/politics/hc-pol-who-is-miguel-cardona-20201222-t3ok4evvobfhrgwyesjql67vny-story.html" target="_blank">described himself </a>as a "goofy little Puerto Rican kid" at his state confirmation hearing — he lived in public housing in Meriden, Connecticut, where he started school having spoken only Spanish at home. </p><blockquote>"The passion I have for public education stems from my belief that it is the best lever for economic success and prosperity in Connecticut," he told lawmakers. "And the belief that public education is still the great equalizer. It was for me."</blockquote><p>In a Connecticut Mirror profile published when he took the schools commissioner job in 2019, he <a href="https://ctmirror.org/2019/08/21/the-states-new-education-commissioner-collaborator-listener-hard-worker/" target="_blank">recalled </a>that he'd faced stereotyping because of his background:<br></p><blockquote>"For Latino children from communities that are below the threshold of poverty, you know you're not typically thinking, the data doesn't suggest that they're going to be the next principal of the school … or state education commissioner," Cardona said. "There were times throughout my youth that I think people had lower expectations than they should have. It just made me hungrier."<br><br>"It's not lost on me, the significance of being the grandson of a tobacco farmer who came here for a better life, who despite having a second grade education was able to raise his family and create that upward mobility cycle," he added.</blockquote><p>Unlike certain yacht-owning Ed secretaries we could name, all of Cardona's education, from elementary school through his doctorate at the University of Connecticut, has been at public institutions. At his confirmation hearing for the commissioner position, he <a href="https://www.courant.com/politics/hc-pol-who-is-miguel-cardona-20201222-t3ok4evvobfhrgwyesjql67vny-story.html" target="_blank">told</a> lawmakers, ""I hold five degrees or certificates from Connecticut universities and I'm a true product of the system I hope to lead." </p><p>And wow what a career. He taught fourth grade in Meriden schools, and <a href="https://ctmirror.org/2019/08/21/the-states-new-education-commissioner-collaborator-listener-hard-worker/" target="_blank">said</a> he might have been happy to stay in the classroom as a career, but he was encouraged by the system's superintendent to get the training to be a principal, so he did, and at 28 became the state's youngest school principal. Eventually, he moved on to the district offices, and in 2013 became an assistant superintendent, and on and on. </p><p>Here's the part where I get some happy tears: His two kids are now going to school in the same public school system that gave him an education and a career. </p><p>Just <a href="https://ctmirror.org/2019/08/21/the-states-new-education-commissioner-collaborator-listener-hard-worker/" target="_blank">listen to him talk</a> about kids and education, explaining why he decided as an undergrad to teach in elementary ed: </p><blockquote>There's so much promise in young children. There's so much opportunity to help them shape what they want to be or what they want to do. You're able to positively impact children, not only academically but also hopefully leave a little bit of an imprint on how they develop as people.<br><br>For me, the best part of my job in every position I've had has been visiting the classroom, especially the little kindergarten ones or the 4-year-old kids. Being around kids — it really serves almost like fuel for the soul.</blockquote><p>But Miguel Cardona isn't just a bundle of terrific, inspirational thoughts; he also has serious commitment to addressing inequities in education. He <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/r/entryeditor/%E2%80%9CFor%20Latino%20children%20from%20communities%20that%20are%20below%20the%20threshold%20of%20poverty,%20you%20know%20you%E2%80%99re%20not%20typically%20thinking,%20the%20data%20doesn%E2%80%99t%20suggest%20that%20they%E2%80%99re%20going%20to%20be%20the%20next%20principal%20of%20the%20school%20%E2%80%A6%20or%20state%20education%20commissioner,%E2%80%9D%20Cardona%20said.%20%E2%80%9CThere%20were%20times%20throughout%20my%20youth%20that%20I%20think%20people%20had%20lower%20expectations%20than%20they%20should%20have.%20It%20just%20made%20me%20hungrier.%E2%80%9D%20%20%E2%80%9CIt%E2%80%99s%20not%20lost%20on%20me,%20the%20significance%20of%20being%20the%20grandson%20of%20a%20tobacco%20farmer%20who%20came%20here%20for%20a%20better%20life,%20who%20despite%20having%20a%20second%20grade%20education%20was%20able%20to%20raise%20his%20family%20and%20create%20that%20upward%20mobility%20cycle,%E2%80%9D%20he%20added." target="_blank">explained </a>in that Connecticut Mirror profile that while his early life experience led him to consider specializing in bilingual education, he decided "it was important non-Latino students saw a Latino in a position as a teacher. So I chose to stay in the regular education setting." And we're sure the <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/rightwing-a-holes-read-dr-jill-bidens-dissertation-find-it-needs-more-sex-crazed-pandas" target="_blank">National Review and Tucker Carlson</a> will have a great big freakout over Cardona's <a href="https://opencommons.uconn.edu/dissertations/AAI3468062/" target="_blank">doctoral dissertation,</a> which argues that really addressing educational disparities will require greater "political will" among educational leaders. Heavens, the abstract even talks about social justice as a <em>good </em>thing! </p><p>On policy matters, Cardona <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/22/us/politics/biden-education-secretary.html" target="_blank">agrees with Biden</a> that the benefits of in-person education, especially for elementary kids, are so important that schools should reopen whenever it's possible to do so safely, although he also respects local districts' authority to make the final decision. Education policy wonk Diane Ravitch <a href="https://dianeravitch.net/2020/12/23/education-week-where-cardona-stands-on-the-issues/" target="_blank">notes</a> that Cardona </p><blockquote>has not taken a strong position for or against charter schools, but the state board has not approved any new charters since he took office in August 2019.<br><br><em>"Charter schools provide choice for parents that are seeking choice, so I think it's a viable option, but [neighborhood schools] that's going to be the core work that not only myself but the people behind me in the agency that I represent will have while I'm commissioner," he said during his state confirmation hearing.</em><br><br>During the campaign, Biden promised to stop federal funding of for-profit charters, a small segment of the industry. Charter advocates are pleased that he is not an opponent, but progressive groups are wary because charters drain funding from neighborhood schools.</blockquote><p>Ravitch also notes that Connecticut only has 21 charters altogether, but that they include "the no-excuses Achievement First, three of whose charters are on probation because of their harsh disciplinary methods. This action was taken last February, while Cardona was state chief." So it looks like he won't stand for excuses from no-excuses outfits. Good! </p><p>We'll close with this observation from the <em>New York Times, </em>which <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/22/us/politics/biden-education-secretary.html" target="_blank">points out</a> that there are some serious disagreements among progressive and centrist Democrats on education policy issues like the role of charters, the use of high-stakes testing, and teachers' unions. Those arguments are likely to get a lot louder with the departure of Betsy DeVos, who was so terrible that everyone agreed that she was the biggest threat to public schools, which allowed Dems to "paper over the deep differences" on policy. </p><p>While there's probably some truth to that, we're hoping Miguel Cardona will be able to avoid the DEEP RIFTS narrative and repair the damage done by DeVos. You know, for kids. </p><p>[<a href="understands%20that%20the%20deep%20roots%20of%20inequity%20that%20exist%20as%20a%20source%20of%20our%20persistent%20opportunities%20gaps.%20He%20understands%20the%20transformative%20power%20that%20comes%20from%20investing%20in%20education." target="_blank">CNN </a>/ <a href="%E2%80%9CFor%20Latino%20children%20from%20communities%20that%20are%20below%20the%20threshold%20of%20poverty,%20you%20know%20you%E2%80%99re%20not%20typically%20thinking,%20the%20data%20doesn%E2%80%99t%20suggest%20that%20they%E2%80%99re%20going%20to%20be%20the%20next%20principal%20of%20the%20school%20%E2%80%A6%20or%20state%20education%20commissioner,%E2%80%9D%20Cardona%20said.%20%E2%80%9CThere%20were%20times%20throughout%20my%20youth%20that%20I%20think%20people%20had%20lower%20expectations%20than%20they%20should%20have.%20It%20just%20made%20me%20hungrier.%E2%80%9D%20%20%E2%80%9CIt%E2%80%99s%20not%20lost%20on%20me,%20the%20significance%20of%20being%20the%20grandson%20of%20a%20tobacco%20farmer%20who%20came%20here%20for%20a%20better%20life,%20who%20despite%20having%20a%20second%20grade%20education%20was%20able%20to%20raise%20his%20family%20and%20create%20that%20upward%20mobility%20cycle,%E2%80%9D%20he%20added." target="_blank">Connecticut Mirror</a> / <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/22/us/politics/biden-education-secretary.html" target="_blank">NYT</a> / <a href="https://www.courant.com/politics/hc-pol-who-is-miguel-cardona-20201222-t3ok4evvobfhrgwyesjql67vny-story.html" target="_blank">Hartford Courant</a> / <a href="https://dianeravitch.net/2020/12/23/education-week-where-cardona-stands-on-the-issues/" target="_blank">Diane Ravitch's blog</a>]</p><p>Yr Wonkette is funded entirely by reader donations. If you can, please set up a monthly $5 or $10 donation, and if you're good, we might even have a popcorn party. </p><p></p><p><a href="https://amzn.to/33mKzZe" target="_blank">Do your Amazon shopping through this link, because reasons</a>.</p><p></p><p></p><form name="donation" method="post" class="donation-form"><p class="subheadline">How often would you like to donate?</p><div class="form-row row--plan"><label class="plan-type__label"><input type="radio" name="plan_type" value="once" class="plan-type" required="" checked> Just once
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Education
Man Of The People Tucker Carlson Being Very Populist About That Elitist Bitch Dr. Jill Biden
Welcome to Obama's Dijon Mustard 2020, but shittier and all around grosser, if that is possible.
December 17, 2020 02:26 PM
Following the foofaraw over Joseph Epstein's dumb Wall Street Journal op-ed arguing that Jill Biden — aka "kiddo" — should disavow being called "Dr. Biden" because she's not a medical doctor, the predictable pile-on in rightwing media continues. No longer content to lecture folks that only MD's can be doctors (because what if a doktor of rhetoric tried to do surgery?), we're now treated to a couple of culture wars gate-keepers who insist that not only is Jill Biden unworthy of the title "Dr.," she's not even qualified for her doctorate in education, because they skimmed her dissertation and it is TERRIBLE.
Mind you, the people making those claims are Fox News's Tucker Carlson, a millionaire frozen dinner heir, and the National Review's Kyle Smith, who used to review movies for the New York Post and has Opinions about sluts in modern fiction. Neither has an advanced degree, because those are for poseurs and elitists. Regardless, both are able to tell that Biden's dissertation, as Smith puts it, is "garbage."
Yr Dok Zoom found a copy of Biden's dissertation online, and while I've only skimmed parts of it, it didn't impress me as particularly barbarous. Could it be that both these dicks are cherry picking small issues and pronouncing the entire work useless? Gosh, what a completely expected bit of bad faith!
<p>Carlson, the king of non sequiturs and strawman arguments, was <a href="https://www.mediaite.com/tv/tucker-carlson-calls-jill-biden-illiterate-not-very-bright-and-says-she-cant-think-clearly-as-he-continues-mocking-her/" target="_blank">frankly scandalized</a> by how bad Biden's dissertation is. Here's part of his segment from Wednesday, which is the usual Carlson garbage, only with a lot more cognitive dissonance than usual. (Full rant video <a href="https://www.mediaite.com/tv/tucker-carlson-calls-jill-biden-illiterate-not-very-bright-and-says-she-cant-think-clearly-as-he-continues-mocking-her/" target="_blank">here</a>)</p><div class="rm-embed embed-media"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="" height="480" scrolling="no" src="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/3918586/embed/embed" width="640"></iframe></div><p>After a VERY LONG introductory bit in which he pounds home the point that someone with an EdD or a PhD can't save your life at a hospital, Carlson gets down to the nitty: Jill Biden is a DUM DUM. </p><blockquote>Dr. Jill needs reading glasses. Either that, or she's borderline illiterate. There are typos everywhere, including in the first graf of the introduction. Dr. Jill can't write, she can't really think clearly either. Parts of the dissertation seems to be written in a foreign language using English words. They're essentially pure nonsense like pig Latin or dogs barking. The whole thing is just incredibly embarrassing. And not simply to poor illiterate Jill Biden, but to the college that considered this crap scholarship. Embarrassing, in fact, to our entire system of higher education, to the nation itself. Jill Biden's doctoral dissertation is our national shame.</blockquote><p>We'll go out on a limb here and assume that, like most dissertations, Biden's includes jargon common to the field that may be unfamiliar to the casual reader, which clearly makes Biden, not Carlson, illiterate. He should try reading something in the medical literature, perhaps, where no one uses specialized language or terms unfamiliar to the average Fox host. </p><p>Also too, shouldn't someone speaking to ordinary folk avoid newsroom argot like "graf" for paragraph? As for the particulars, indeed, there is a tiny typos in the first graf of her intro" "Undeserved" instead of "underserved." NATIONAL SHAME, and what's more, it probably means Trump gets to stay in office. </p><p>Carlson's other gripes are similarly dumb. A redundancy here, a casual use of fractions that don't add up (and are not germane to any conclusions) there. Yeah, sure, they're minor errors that should have been fixed, but Carlson's merely pointing at superficial nitpicks that have <em>nothing to do </em>with Biden's overall points. </p><p>Strangely enough, we should add that a recent <em>Chronicle of Higher Education</em> <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/how-do-you-retain-community-college-students-jill-biden-has-a-dissertation-for-that" target="_blank">summary </a>of Biden's dissertation didn't fixate at all on such matters. Instead, that article said Biden's dissertation "<strong></strong>makes one thing clear: She is well versed in the language of student success." What's more, the <em>Chronicle</em> notes, Biden's 2006 recommendations for strategies to keep students in school "have since become increasingly popular at colleges that serve vulnerable students." Stupid big picture idiot, why aren't they screaming about the typos? </p><p>Carlson, of course has a far bigger axe to grind: Joe Biden is stupid. </p><blockquote>They're telling you that no one would ever call a man dumb. Okay, well, that's wrong. We call Dr. Jill's husband dumb all the time. In fact, we're going to go full feminist here and admit that Dr. Jill is a lot smarter than the man she married. Not that it's saying much.</blockquote><p>Worse, not only is Jill Biden stupid, the fact that she got a joke advanced degree (for which she isn't qualified) proves that higher education is all just a plot to ruin ordinary American Fox News Viewers' lives. </p><blockquote>[It's] not a sexism thing. What it is actually is a class thing. We have a class system in this country. And it's based on credentials like the ones Dr. Jill Biden has. A certain sort of person in America gets advanced degrees or works at McKinsey or goes to Yale, not in order to learn, or to create, or to achieve anything inherently impressive or worth having — no! Instead, to justify their power over <em>you</em>. They've got more merit badges, therefore they rule. [...] If you're allowed to point out that Jill Biden isn't really a doctor, maybe not even very bright, then you're just one step away from noticing that the medals on their chests aren't real either.</blockquote><p>Man, you gotta love it when a millionaire populist explains that education is merely a scam to advance class war against decent godfearing Americans who wouldn't ever be polluted by too much book learning. Lord knows I love controlling the world with my PhD in rhetoric, so I can look down my nose at people who don't even know what an enthymeme is, haha the fools. </p><p>The real danger is that someone might get some media literacy and see Tucker Carlson's cheesy "just folks" rhetoric for the insidious anti-democratic, pro-corporate propaganda it is. Don't want the masses getting too smart or they might ask far more uncomfortable questions than "why does Jill Biden get to call herself 'doctor'"? </p><p>And then there's Kyle Smith's turn at the <em>National Review, </em>in which he <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/12/jill-bidens-doctorate-is-garbage-because-her-dissertation-is-garbage/" target="_blank">attempts </a>to prove Biden's dissertation is garbage because it's in a field he thinks isn't serious.</p><p>Smith literally tells us in <em>his </em>first graf that he went to Yale, and none of the profs he "knew" there, at Yale, where he went (apparently his peers, at Yale, not his superiors in any way) would ever go by Doctor outside academe. An EdD, he adds, is "something of a joke in the academic world," the mark of a grotty social climber, and Jill Biden doesn't even deserve hers. (Honestly, why are there even doctorates in something like education?) </p><p>The piece does, at least, live up to Smith's <a href="https://twitter.com/rkylesmith/status/1339317546324021251" target="_blank">own tweet</a> teasing it: </p><div id="505bd" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="550a4041d391ecd9c89c18817045e5b6"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1339317546324021251" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">You're gonna love my next piece. It's so mean.</div> — Kyle Smith (@Kyle Smith)<a href="https://twitter.com/rkylesmith/statuses/1339317546324021251">1608153161.0</a></blockquote></div><p>And mean it is, though not well-argued or even all that coherent. Lots of adolescent, condescending snark aimed at people who didn't major in anything prestigious, and especially at Jill Biden, whose dissertation</p><blockquote>is not an addition to the sum total of human knowledge. It is not a demonstration of expertise in its specific topic or its broad field. It is a gasping, wheezing, frail little Disney forest creature that begs you to notice the effort it makes to be the thing it is imitating while failing so pathetically that any witnesses to its ineptitude must feel compelled, out of manners alone, to drag it to the nearest podium and give it a participation trophy.</blockquote><p>Take that, <em>Chronicle of Higher Education! </em> If Biden's recommendations for improving retention of high-risk students have in fact contributed to her field, then it must be a crappy field. </p><p>Smith's meanness for its own sake extends well past Biden, which is why his piece is so infuriating. Bad enough that Biden's dissertation is "lacking in rhetorical force, boldness of conception, and original research," but Jill Biden isn't even contributing anything of value to the world: "she has spent a lot of time teaching remedial English to slow learners in community colleges." </p><p>As someone whose own teaching emphasis was in basic writing, and who taught LOTS of students who were the first in their families to go to college, I would here like to suggest that my students knew a hell of a lot more about character and hard work than this Yalie prick who shits on the very idea of improving oneself through education, because after all, he knows that some people just aren't worth bothering with. </p><p>Kind of makes me want to put Smith on a panel with Carlson to discuss elitism and academic rigor, at least. </p><p>Smith's own "rhetorical force," not surprisingly, is as spurious as Carlson's shitty populism (<em>poopulism</em>?). Get a load of this ... load: </p><blockquote>Mrs. [<em>Thus</em><em> he </em><em>denies the silly woman her</em><em> pretensions — Dok</em>] Biden until recently taught <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/jill-biden-is-finally-ready-to-be-first-lady-can-she-help-her-husband-beat-trump/2020/08/17/acacc936-e007-11ea-8181-606e603bb1c4_story.html" target="_blank">English composition</a> at NoVa, a small community college in Northern Virginia. To justify addressing her as "Dr." would require a generous view of what constitutes an "academic," and judging by the <a href="https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=1251801" target="_blank">writing skills evinced by her students</a> ("She very bad teacher and it is hard to pass class. I RECOMMEND NOT TAKE THIS PROFESSOR"), they emerged from her tutelage lacking mastery of even very basic grammar.</blockquote><p>Got that? She isn't an academic<em> at all, </em>because Kyle Smith, Yale-educated man of letters, cherry-picked a single disgruntled review from a non-native speaker of English — on RateMyProfessor.com, the website for non-representative teacher evaluations. At a glance, most of Biden's reviews are positive, with a noisy minority of people who thought she grades too hard. </p><p>Man, if all you get from a Yale education is a knack for multisyllabic insults and making claims that you can't support with evidence, that place must really suck. </p><p>Smith promises a full review of Biden's dissertation next week. Oh joy. </p><p>[<a href="https://www.mediaite.com/tv/tucker-carlson-calls-jill-biden-illiterate-not-very-bright-and-says-she-cant-think-clearly-as-he-continues-mocking-her/" target="_blank">Mediaite </a>/ <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/12/jill-bidens-doctorate-is-garbage-because-her-dissertation-is-garbage/" target="_blank">National Review</a> / <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/how-do-you-retain-community-college-students-jill-biden-has-a-dissertation-for-that?cid=gen_sign_in" target="_blank">Chronicle of Higher Education</a> (free signup required) / <a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/20407226/bidens-dissertation.pdf" target="_blank">Student Retention at Community Colleges: Meeting Students' Needs</a>]</p><p>Yr Wonkette is funded entirely by reader contributions. If you can swing it, please consider a $5 to $10 monthly contribution, so we can keep up this stream of mellifluous, well-modulated obscenities at rodent-felching gnome buggerers who don't appreciate education.</p><p></p><p><a href="https://amzn.to/33mKzZe" target="_blank">Do your Amazon shopping through this link, because reasons</a>.</p><p></p><p></p><form name="donation" method="post" class="donation-form"><p class="subheadline">How often would you like to donate?</p><div class="form-row row--plan"><label class="plan-type__label"><input type="radio" name="plan_type" value="once" class="plan-type" required="" checked> Just once
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Education
Betsy DeVos Tells Staff To 'Resist' Public Schools Or Some Damn Thing
Four years of never reading the room.
December 16, 2020 01:23 PM
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos urged folks at the Education Department to "be the resistance" to the incoming Biden administration Tuesday, because apparently she thinks the department's career staff share her deep commitment to gutting public education in favor of private schools. Politico reports it obtained a recording of DeVos's remarks during a "department-wide virtual meeting" called to discuss the transition, telling workers,
Let me leave you with this plea: Resist. [...] Be the resistance against forces that will derail you from doing what's right for students. In everything you do, please put students first — always.
Apparently the Amway billionaire and advocate for privatizing education hopes members of the department will fight tooth and nail to continue her "support" of students through making sure they pay every penny of exorbitant loans, and don't fall victim to the evil lure of government funding for the first two years of public universities and community colleges. Good lord, that might mean young people won't be saddled with student debt forever, and might even start families and small businesses and stuff. And what kind of America would THAT be?
<p>Politico <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/12/15/betsy-devos-biden-education-department-445900" target="_blank">adds </a>that in DeVos's valedictory remarks to the department she'd soon be leaving, she explained </p><blockquote>that her goal "in everything we accomplished was to do what's right for students," adding that "four years later it's still my focus and it's still my hope for all of you." She touted <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/12/devios-midconduct-rule-blocks-fall-394390" target="_blank">her overhaul of Title IX rules governing sexual assault</a> and misconduct in schools and colleges as one of her major accomplishments.</blockquote><p>Well of course she did. Those are the rules aimed at making it harder for victims of sexual assault to have their cases heard. The ACLU <a href="https://www.aclu.org/news/womens-rights/devos-is-rolling-back-protections-for-sexual-harassment-and-assault-survivors-in-schools-were-suing-to-put-a-stop-to-it/" target="_blank">argued </a>earlier this year that DeVos's new regulations</p><blockquote>[allow] colleges to ignore reports of assault or harassment unless they are made to the "right" official. Not even the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/jan/26/larry-nassar-abuse-gymnasts-scandal-culture" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">biggest sexual abuse scandal</a> in sports history — USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar's abuse of <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42894833" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">hundreds of gymnasts</a>, including Michigan State students — would meet this standard, because many of the students reported the abuse to their athletic coaches, not the university's designated Title IX coordinator.</blockquote><p>So presumably, if the Biden administration wants to return to the Obama-era standards DeVos trashed, she wants the folks she leaves behind in the Education Department to resist that, and do "what's right" for the accused rapists, the poor dears. </p><p>Or maybe DeVos is worried about Biden's call for Congress to forgive the first $10,000 of all federal student loan debt, because surely that would harm former students by getting them addicted to government handouts without even being oil companies. Or even scarier than that, she might be urging resistance to <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/lets-stimulate-the-economy-by-forgiving-student-loan-debt-also-betsy-devos-can-f-ck-off" target="_blank">Elizabeth Warren's call </a>for Biden to forgive student debt through executive action, which would be just terrible because some people paid their loans and it's just not fair to help other people. (Under this principle, we must not distribute the coronavirus vaccine, because lots of people have already had to get sick and die without it, and isn't it unfair to make life easier for the freeloaders who want to go out in public without risking death?) </p><p>For that matter, DeVos might also be telling her loyalists in the department to "resist" any attempts to crack down again on another of her favorite constituencies, the for-profit-college industry. <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/betsy-devos-really-hated-forgiving-loans-for-victims-of-grifty-for-profit-colleges" target="_blank">She LOVES those guys,</a> and would certainly hate to see students robbed of the "choice" to be robbed by fraudsters who are experts at milking federal grants, the GI Bill, and student loans for profits while delivering not much of an education at all, because after all, this is America. </p><p>But hold on here, <em>what </em>loyalists in the Education Department, anyway? Won't all the crazy privatize-everything political appointees clear out once Biden is inaugurated? </p><p>Many will, but thanks to Donald Trump's <a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/trumps-plan-gut-civil-service" target="_blank">rewrite of the rules for civil service jobs,</a> it will now be easier for his departing administration to fire career civil servants and replace them with political appointees. It's a disgusting hocus-pocus that seems aimed at <a href="https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/trumpinc/episodes/trump-inc-transition" target="_blank">building Trump's very own "deep state"</a> of political hacks throughout executive branch agencies. So there actually may be some DeVos loyalists left behind in the Education Department to run interference against Biden's nefarious plans to undo four years of DeVos fuckery. </p><p>Isn't the grand experiment of democracy a beautiful thing? </p><p>[<a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/12/15/betsy-devos-biden-education-department-445900" target="_blank">Politico </a>/ <a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/trumps-plan-gut-civil-service" target="_blank">Lawfare </a>/ <a href="https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/trumpinc/episodes/trump-inc-transition" target="_blank">Trump Inc.</a> / Image based on photo by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore/40463669092/" target="_blank">Gage Skidmore,</a> Creative Commons <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/" target="_blank">license 2.0</a>]</p><p>Yr Wonkette is funded entirely by reader donations. If you can, please give $5 to $10 monthly to help us keep you on top of all this crap these weasels are up to. </p><p></p><p><a href="https://amzn.to/33mKzZe" target="_blank">Do your Amazon shopping through this link, because reasons</a>.</p><p></p><p></p><form name="donation" method="post" class="donation-form"><p class="subheadline">How often would you like to donate?</p><div class="form-row row--plan"><label class="plan-type__label"><input type="radio" name="plan_type" value="once" class="plan-type" required="" checked> Just once
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