President Trump: The NEW one and only politics thread

Well, you know, what happened in NYC or what appears in the area's newspapers and teevee does occasionally filter out to the rest of the nation, and did even back in the 70s and 80s. It was not exactly a big secret that Fucko was known to fuck around in the city's hotspots with manly men such as Roy Cohn. People Were Talking.

 

Trump strikes me as the type who secretly likes to be pissed on.

 

I hear some girls are just Russian to do it on him.

 

I understand your point, but this isn't a matter of jargon or some courageous outsider trying to buck the system. The concepts she failed to grasp are far simpler than that.

I'm not just talking about teachers' anger and disgust. It has spread to parents as well. My point was that educators have done a good job of explaining all of the issues with DeVos, her ignorance and her policy. Trump thought promising to get rid of Common Core would be enough of a policy on education to placate teachers and parents and it clearly is not.

Understanding the difference between using growth and using proficiency in testing is not a matter of jargon. The day after the hearing, I asked my 13-year-old daughter to explain the difference and she did it easily. I asked her cousin, who is 14, and some of my daughter's friends. This is a simple, basic concept that you do not have to work in education to understand. Not only did she demonstrate ignorance in that hearing, she demonstrated a lack of preparation. It sure seemed like she didn't even care about the other issues facing education as long as she gets to push her agenda.

There is also the matter of plagiarizing parts of her responses to questions from Congress. It wasn't just one mistake by DeVos.

You mentioned being "fluent in the language of the opposition." Educators should not be the opposition for a Secretary of Education. If you are going to work with educators, you should be able to understand their language, at least on a very basic level. She made it very easy for Al Franken to embarrass her during the confirmation hearing. Hell, I don't even think he was trying to embarrass her. He asked her a legitimate question and he pointed out the contradiction in her answer, one that was caused by her ignorance.

I appreciate that you are putting some thought into the matter and offering a reasonable argument rather than just taking a couple of dumps on the discussion and running away as YF did.

 

As fun as it would be to see a bunch of dialogue backed up with nothing, how about this:

OSSE NGA Web Report

Slight improvement. Still way below grade-level standards.

 

Any improvement in spite of the implementation of Common Core is actually quite impressive given that the standards were raised and in most cases, there were significant problems with implementation. In simplest terms, part of Common Core is raising academic standards. The standard those students are being tested against is higher than it was before Common Core.

That said, the question of the quality of the school is irrelevant to my point. It was just one of the distractions YF uses when he can't win the overall argument. It does't change the fact that DeVos praised the district and its teachers, then criticized them, then backed off. She continues to make the Trump administration look bad, in part because the public actually understands why she was such a terrible choice.

 

Since it's been over an hour and there's been no guesses, I will assume you all give up. The President who played the most golf in office is not famous golfer Eisenhower, whose impressive 800 rounds is good only for second. Woodrow Wilson is the all-time champ at sneaking away from work to the course, logging an astonishing 1200 rounds in his two terms in office. It's a record that will probably never be touched, not even by Trump, and is all the more amazing when you consider that for 18 months of Wilson's tenure, the country was in fucking World War, and for much of his last year, he was incapacitated by a stroke. Clearly, Woody must've looped it many a time. Or maybe he was in a 9-hole sunset league.

 

He has graduated to homicide.

 

I would guess Eisenhower.

 

Damn. Replied before I saw this. Never would have guessed Wilson.

 

It has gained credibility since the election.

 

The discussions re: education/DeVos reminded me of this very economics-y post on SlateStarCodex about "The Cost Disease." As he leads off with public education, you don't have to plow through the very long thing (which is getting a lot of attention across a lot of communities).

http://slatestarcodex.com/2017/02/09/considerations-on-cost-disease/