Former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos made news over the weekend when she told a “Moms for Liberty” event in Florida that she thinks the federal department she directed as recently as 2020 should be abolished altogether. Said DeVos:
“I personally think the Department of Education should not exist.”
This is not a new idea, by any means; right-wing Republicans have long argued that the Department of Education should be scrapped in favor of letting state and local authorities make their own decisions on learning the childrens. You know, like in Florida, where math books get banned for mentioning brown people.
This is also an idea that Republican Senate candidate Joe O’Dea has in common with Betsy DeVos. Speaking on The Leland Conway Show on April 12, 2022, O’Dea said this in answer to a question about if he supports eliminating some federal departments:
I think I’d get rid of [the Department of] Education. [Pols emphasis] I think we proved that here in Colorado through COVID, right? We finally got to look and see what our kids our learning. Parents around this state took it back. They took it seriously. We turned over school boards.
The idea that parents were unaware of what their children were learning in school until COVID-19 came along is just plain stupid. If you want to know what your kid is learning in school, ask them. Or look at their homework. Or talk to their teacher. It’s not like the public school curriculum is some big secret.
Anyway, on this issue it appears that Joe O’Dea and Betsy DeVos are in complete agreement. This should go over real well with teachers and school administrators in Colorado.
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9 out of 10 MAGAts surveyed agree:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FW9DSkUUsAAsNgG?format=jpg&name=small
Guy who knows – what, exactly? – about education or the federal Dept. of Education has an opinion. Oh boy. It reads sort of like what you'd hear at closing time in a dive bar, and I'm not speaking from inexperience here. He's a not ready for prime time player.
Does Joe O'Dea hate people with disabilities? The D of E includes the Rehabilitation Services Administration which provides funding support for state vocational rehabilitation programs that work with disabled workers for re-training and job placement so they can again be productive citizens in the work force.
I'm reminded of former Department of Energy Secretary who has said it too shouldn't exist though after appointed said he learned fundamental things that he should have known before opening his big dumb mouth.
Refresh my recollection. Was that the same moron who wanted to abolish three federal department but was only able to name two of them?
Former Governor Ken Perry from Texas.
Perry actually was decent on wind energy in Texas as governor. But, as the big February snowstorm showed couple years ago, they forgot to winterize their turbines.
Nope…that was Rick.
Short answer: "Yes." I'm fairly certain that hatred of folks with disabilities will make it into the Republican Platform in 2024….in the event they actually produce one.
Sorry, but I think you're conflating things. 2024 is quite a ways off. And my question about "Joe O'Dea hating people with disabilities" was somewhat rhetorical.
Did Joe O'Dea not get the memo? You run to the ideological pole of your party during the primary campaign, and you run to the center during the general election campaign.
Some candidates just can't pivot. To them, doing so would be tantamount to an admission of error. Did The Screaming Yam ever admit he was wrong about anything? That's their role model. Gotta please the MAGAts.
Kirkmeyer is also one who will double down instead of pivot. It's in their nature to deny the reality of the moment.
The answer is "No". The Republican strategy in the general election is to get your base to the polls. In fact if O'Dea were to "go RINO", his base would assume he has sold out, and would avoid the election or vote for the whack-a-doodle Libertarian.
Agreed, PH. Republicans win by moving the window to the right while Dems play catch up to a center that WAS the right in the last cycle. Will our party never learn?
As long as money drives the process. probably not.
Money always pulls the process to the right.
Jack Eckerd (yes, that Eckerd) lost a race for Fla. governor in 1970, as memory serves, because he spent too much money…particularly, his own.
Times have changed…