The Politics Behind the Education Secretary Vote

The New York Analysis of Policy and Government reviews the politics of the vote to approve the new Secretary of Education

The Democrats’ chances in the 2018 election were almost extinguished yesterday due to their attempt to prevent the nomination of Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education.

Oddly enough, it was only the tie-breaking vote by Republican Vice President Mike Pence, which insured the success of President Trump’s nominee, that shielded Democrats from the wrath of parents who have rebelled against attempts to block reform of America’s failing public school system.

DeVos is a staunch advocate of vouchers and charter schools. That enraged the leadership of teachers’ unions, who used their powerful influence within the Democrat Party to mount a drive to stop her approval.

Her home state of Michigan has had charter schools since 1993. According to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, there 307 charter schools in Michigan.

Devos has also been an advocate for more state and local, rather than federal, control of schools. A support letter signed by twenty governors stated:

“As governors, we know the conditions placed on local schools by the federal government. While state and local governments bear the chief responsibility for funding our K-12 systems, we take issue with many of the mandates imposed on states. That is why we strongly support Betsy DeVos, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of education. Betsy DeVos will fight to streamline the federal education bureaucracy, return authority back to states and local school boards, and ensure that more dollars are reaching the classroom. Betsy DeVos also is a passionate supporter of increasing parental engagement in their children’s education and of harnessing the power of competition to drive improvement in all K-12 schools, whether they be public, private or virtual.”

DeVos was also heavily involved in the passage of a Right to Work bill in Michigan, which won her the opposition of unions throughout the nation.
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The problem for Democrats is that Charter schools and school vouchers are very popular in the U.S., and that popularity extends also to core elements of Democrat Party support.

A survey by Public Charters.org reports that:

“Survey results…showed that…parents across the country (78 percent) favor allowing parents to choose their child’s public school, regardless of where they live. Support is even higher among African-American parents (82 percent), Hispanic parents (84 percent), and low-income parents (86 percent). ‘Parents across the nation are telling us that they want to be able to choose the best public school for their child, and the results from this survey reinforce the demand for more high-quality charter schools,’ said Nina Rees, president and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. ‘Today, nearly 3 million students are enrolled in about 7,000 charter schools, but there are still numerous students on wait lists. These results should make it clear to our nation’s leaders that they need to make charter school access a priority.’

“Nationwide, support for public school choice among parents outweighs opposition by an almost five-to-one margin (78 percent to 17 percent). Opposition to charter schools, specifically, remains at only 16 percent. “

A Boston Herald report captured the sentiment of many inner city minorities, who are angered at the role of white liberals in opposing school choice. “You are hurting our children — not yours. Do you actually care what happens to little black and brown children? No, you don’t’ said Dawn Foye, a Roxbury mother who sends her son to Kipp Academy in Mattapan.

“Harvard and MIT researchers have issued a number of reports analyzing charter schools in Boston. The most comprehensive report is Kane, Let the Numbers Have Their Say (2016). It covers every issue and concludes: ‘… many charter schools in Boston and other urban areas in Massachusetts are generating gains in achievement that are large enough to close achievement gaps by race and income over time. It is an historic achievement, and it’s no wonder that thousands of students in Boston and other low-income urban centers in the state would prefer such schools over their district schools.’”

The Report concludes tomorrow

Quick Analysis

Judge Juan Merchan Must Recuse Himself from Hearing the Case of Donald Trump

Judge Juan Merchan Must Recuse Himself from Hearing the Case of Donald Trump By John H. Wilson In April and May of 2023, we discussed several of the weaknesses of the criminal case brought against former President Donald Trump. In particular, we described the legal insufficiency of the indictment, which does not “asserts facts supporting every element of the offense charged and the defendant`s…commission thereof with sufficient precision to clearly apprise the defendant…of the conduct which is the subject of the accusation.” We also noted that the majority of the charges brought against Trump are most likely time-barred by New York’s Statute of Limitations. https://www.usagovpolicy.com/is-trumps-indictment-beyond-the-statute-of-limitations/ In both articles, we also noted that the Judge assigned to hear the case against the former President, Juan Merchan, had previously donated small sums to several anti-Trump organizations, and was unlikely to dismiss the charges on either of these grounds. According to the New York Post, Merchan “donated $35 to Democratic causes in 2020, including $15 to President Biden’s campaign and $10 to a group dedicated to ‘resisting … Donald Trump’s radical right-wing legacy.’ Federal Election Commission records show Merchan made three small-dollar donations within the span of two days in July 2020 through ActBlue, the Democratic Party’s preferred online fundraising platform. The veteran judge contributed $15 earmarked for the ‘Biden for President’ campaign on July 26, 2020, and then the following day made $10 contributions to the Progressive Turnout Project and Stop Republicans” . Given the small amounts involved, no one seriously argued that Judge Merchan should be removed from the case after having made these contributions, even though “FEC records show that Merchan listed his occupation as ‘judge’ on the donation form, and his employer as the New York State Office of Court Administration.” This is, however, an issue of some seriousness. Under Rule 100.5(A)(1) of the Rules of the Chief Administrative Judge for the State of New York, “[n]either a sitting judge nor a candidate for public election to judicial office shall directly or indirectly engage in any political activity except (i) as otherwise authorized by this section or by law, (ii) to vote and to identify himself or herself as a member of a political party, and (iii) on behalf of measures to improve the law, the legal system or the administration of justice. Prohibited political activity shall include…(h) soliciting funds for, paying an assessment to, or making a contribution to a political organization or candidate. (Emphasis added.) This means that despite the modest sums donated by Judge Merchan, he is prohibited from making ANY contribution, in ANY amount, to the Biden campaign, or any other political organization. It’s not as if Judge Merchan wouldn’t be aware of these rules. According to CNN, “Merchan launched his legal career in 1994…as an assistant district attorney in the trial division in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office…[i]n 2006, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg…appointed Merchan to Family Court in the Bronx, and Democratic Gov. David Paterson appointed him to the New York State Court of Claims in 2009, the same year he began serving as an acting New York Supreme Court judge.” With more than 23 years of experience as a judge, Juan Merchan would certainly know he is prohibited from making contributions in any amount to political campaigns and organizations. But he did it anyway. Further, under Rule 100.3(E)(1) “[a] judge shall disqualify himself or herself in a proceeding in which the judge’s impartiality might reasonably be questioned.” Making campaign contributions to the current President, and then hearing the case of that President’s opponent in this year’s election would certainly qualify as a reasonable question regarding Merchan’s impartiality. But this is only one basis under which Judge Merchan’s removal from the Trump case is both appropriate and necessary. There is more substantial basis for this matter to be taken away from Judge Merchan. Rule 100.3(E)(1) continues as follows; “[a] judge shall disqualify himself or herself in a proceeding in which the judge’s impartiality might reasonably be questioned, including but not limited to instances where… (d) the judge knows that the judge or the judge’s spouse, or a person known by the judge to be within the sixth degree of relationship to either of them, or the spouse of such a person…(iii) has an interest that could be substantially affected by the proceeding.” According to the website Living DNA, a First Degree of Relationship is a Parent to a Child, while a Sixth Degree is a second cousin. In between are Grandparents and grandchildren, great-grandparents and great-grandchildren, Aunts, Uncles, Nieces, Nephews and First Cousins. It stands to reason, then, that if Judge Merchan had a cousin, or a nephew, or a grandchild who was known to the Judge, and that person had “an interest that could be substantially affected” by a proceeding over which Judge Merchan was presiding, he would have to legally and ethically recuse himself from the handling of that matter. But what if that person is of the first degree of relationship, that is, a child of the Judge? Meet Loren Merchan, who is, according to the New York Post, “president of Authentic Campaigns, a Chicago-based progressive political consulting firm whose top clients include Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who was the lead prosecutor in Trump’s first impeachment trial, and the Senate Majority PAC, a major party fundraiser…Schiff’s campaign for US Senate scored an eye-popping $20 million in aid since he began soliciting donations off the presumptive GOP presidential front-runner’s unprecedented 34-count indictment last April, according to Federal Election Commission records…The Senate Majority political action committee, which supports Democratic Senate campaigns, pocketed $73.6 million since it also began firing off fundraising emails following the ex-president’s indictment…The super PAC has done more than $15 million in business with Authentic since 2019, including email fundraising and branding assistance, while Schiff’s Senate campaign paid Authentic more than $10 million for digital advertising and other consulting services the past year, records show.” Let us understand what the New York Post has revealed here. Loren Merchan is the president of an organization that has been paid ten million dollars by the Senate Majority PAC, which has earned the money to pay Loren’s company by fundraising that is, at least, […]

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