Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) teaches Betsy DeVos, nominee for Secretary of Education, a lesson.
Senator Al Franken came to [Tuesday’s] hearing on Betsy DeVos’ confirmation as Education Secretary armed with facts and figures and basic knowledge of education policy.
Sadly, Mrs. DeVos did not, as Franken soon exposed.
At one point, her answers showed she did not understand the difference between proficiency and growth when evaluating student’s performance on standardized tests.
Growth is the measure of how much a student learns year-to-year compared to his or her peers. Proficiency is the attainment of specific objective benchmarks, usually determined via standardized testing. There’s a huge difference between the two, and the debate is one that heavily influences public education policy.
Franken let DeVos know he wasn’t impressed, chiding, “It surprises me that you don’t know this issue.”
He then asked her about her family’s massive donations to anti-LGBTQ groups such as Focus on the Family who promote conversion therapy to get gay people on the straight and narrow. She didn’t know anything about that, either.
It’s worth watching.
Oh, by the way, she also thinks that it’s okay to have guns in schools because they might be attacked by grizzly bears.
The grizzly bear thing was so funny. They are such a huge threat! She should have launched into the “lions and tigers and bears, oh my!” line. Not so funny is her as Secretary of Education.
Grizzlies are such a problem!
Marco Rubio has tweeted the following (from his website): “I support @BetsyDeVos’ nomination, because every child deserves a good #education regardless of their zip code or how much money they have.”
Hmmm, I thought that was exactly the reason why you WOULDN’T support her nomination.
“soflanewbie”, You are Right On!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Xcellent!! Now, is someone gonna mention this to mr. rubio??
I love Mr. Franken!