Biden announces lead teams for each Department/Agency in the govt

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m excited for competence. I just hope we don’t see a bunch of feelgood social engineering policies that dumb down the schools in a failed attempt at equality of outcome vs equality of opportunity.

Do you ever think your knee jerk reaction to new policies means you aren’t evaluating them fairly?

DP, but dumbing down education because of equity concerns is a real issue. It's not that the competent people aren't aware of the issue, of course they are, but the weight of measures implemented to pull up the low-performers inevitably ends up slowing down efforts to also make teaching more rigorous and ambitious. It's a really difficult problem to solve in a large, diverse nation like the USA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:God I love competence!

Biden wasn't my first choice, but I'm really glad we have someone with a lot of experience now. Despite the Trump administration tantrum on the transition, he isn't going to miss a beat on a transition team that's going to hit the ground running and keep going. They're already showing up the Trump team and they're not even in charge yet.

As a Democrat candidate, he has the most recent experience on the world stage and in the Oval Office of anyone except Obama. He also has decades of experience before that, a reputation for being able to work across the aisles, and general decency.

So, I think people are willing to volunteer to work with him and fix things? Thousands of them who are at the top of their games, it looks like. And I hear this has been set up months ago, expecting that Trump would block transition if he lost.

God. Damn.

If you went back in time knowing how it would play out, you really couldn't pick a better presidential candidate to take over after Trump. I'm impressed.

[Anonymous]

Who are these random people from Twitter posting stuff, that gets retweeted and screenshots posted here? Who spends time on these Tweets? Besides our President, who cares about all of these Tweets?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Quick question, if anyone knows off the cuff -- are these usually practically all volunteer positions, or would they usually be paid through the transition team money that is being held up?

The second one. Biden answered questions about this yesterday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who are these random people from Twitter posting stuff, that gets retweeted and screenshots posted here? Who spends time on these Tweets? Besides our President, who cares about all of these Tweets?

They are interested people. Like the posters here, except even more interested.

[Anonymous]

Was Seema Nanda fired? She’s listed in the Department of Labor section, as self-employed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who are these random people from Twitter posting stuff, that gets retweeted and screenshots posted here? Who spends time on these Tweets? Besides our President, who cares about all of these Tweets?

They are interested people. Like the posters here, except even more interested.

Mostly reporters and advocates. You can click on someone’s twitter profile and find out who they are and why they’re interested. I’m surprised anyone would question why anyone wouldn’t be interested in what the next administration is doing. Here’s a list of all of them:

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m excited for competence. I just hope we don’t see a bunch of feelgood social engineering policies that dumb down the schools in a failed attempt at equality of outcome vs equality of opportunity.

Do you ever think your knee jerk reaction to new policies means you aren’t evaluating them fairly?

DP. No, we've tried dumbing down schools. It fails everyone. Now we're ready to return to academic excellence.

No, I’m saying why are you assuming that anyone is talking about “dumbing down” anything? That’s the knee jerk here that I’m talking about. Are you in education? I’m not; my kids’ education - even in distance learning - doesn’t seem dumbed down. It sounds like a right wing talking point.

Let me google the people/groups represented for the Dept of Ed:
Linda Darling-Hammond at Learning Policy Institute: “ LPI conducts and communicates independent, high-quality research to improve education policy and practice.” Darling-Hammond was from Stanford, and LPI was to focus on recognizing that school looks different now than it did 50 years ago, looking at strong early ed programs with measurable outcomes to scale them up, attracting talented new teachers, and looking for ways to increase equity so that poor and homeless students and their schools aren’t left in the dust. https://edsource.org/2015/new-institute-in-palo-alto-aims-to-help-shape-state-national-k-12-policy/86100 No dumbing down here.

Ary Amerikaner at The Education Trust - “Fierce advocates for the high academic achievement of all students — particularly those of color or living in poverty.“ https://edtrust.org/ Huh. Sounds like no dumbing here, either.

Beth Antunez at American Federation of Teachers. Probably good to have teachers represented for once. No dumbing down here.

Jim Brown retired, but here’s the relevant bit of his bio: “Jim is also a trustee of several educational institutions, including Immaculata University, the Gesu School and the Young Scholars Charter School. He is a director of the Pennsylvania Center for Excellence in Education (the advisory board for the Pennsylvania Governor’s Schools) and serves as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education Foundation.” https://www.casey.senate.gov/newsroom/releases/senator-elect-casey-announces-key-staff-positions Sounds like he might support excellence.

There are 16 other people, and I’m going to guess they all bring as much to the table as the first four listed. So now after googling I think your sour grapes about “dumbing down” are a right wing talking point. But maybe you think Betsy Devos, hater of both teachers and secular education, was a better woman.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m excited for competence. I just hope we don’t see a bunch of feelgood social engineering policies that dumb down the schools in a failed attempt at equality of outcome vs equality of opportunity.

Do you ever think your knee jerk reaction to new policies means you aren’t evaluating them fairly?

DP. No, we've tried dumbing down schools. It fails everyone. Now we're ready to return to academic excellence.

No, I’m saying why are you assuming that anyone is talking about “dumbing down” anything? That’s the knee jerk here that I’m talking about. Are you in education? I’m not; my kids’ education - even in distance learning - doesn’t seem dumbed down. It sounds like a right wing talking point.

Let me google the people/groups represented for the Dept of Ed:
Linda Darling-Hammond at Learning Policy Institute: “ LPI conducts and communicates independent, high-quality research to improve education policy and practice.” Darling-Hammond was from Stanford, and LPI was to focus on recognizing that school looks different now than it did 50 years ago, looking at strong early ed programs with measurable outcomes to scale them up, attracting talented new teachers, and looking for ways to increase equity so that poor and homeless students and their schools aren’t left in the dust. https://edsource.org/2015/new-institute-in-palo-alto-aims-to-help-shape-state-national-k-12-policy/86100 No dumbing down here.

Ary Amerikaner at The Education Trust - “Fierce advocates for the high academic achievement of all students — particularly those of color or living in poverty.“ https://edtrust.org/ Huh. Sounds like no dumbing here, either.

Beth Antunez at American Federation of Teachers. Probably good to have teachers represented for once. No dumbing down here.

Jim Brown retired, but here’s the relevant bit of his bio: “Jim is also a trustee of several educational institutions, including Immaculata University, the Gesu School and the Young Scholars Charter School. He is a director of the Pennsylvania Center for Excellence in Education (the advisory board for the Pennsylvania Governor’s Schools) and serves as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education Foundation.” https://www.casey.senate.gov/newsroom/releases/senator-elect-casey-announces-key-staff-positions Sounds like he might support excellence.

There are 16 other people, and I’m going to guess they all bring as much to the table as the first four listed. So now after googling I think your sour grapes about “dumbing down” are a right wing talking point. But maybe you think Betsy Devos, hater of both teachers and secular education, was a better woman.

I'm one of the PP's that you are replying to. NCLB seemed like a good idea at the time but it has changed education tremendously and in very negative ways. DeVos is not responsible for this. It's older than her.

It's time to repeal NCLB and go back to excellence.

Having either science or social studies in elementary school but not both is just one example of the schools failing everyone. Maybe school should go back to looking like it did 50 years ago.

[Anonymous]

Trump sent “beachhead teams” to various agencies, including State. I guess they thought State was like the Normandy landings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here’s the EPA

Wait a second... we can have PRO-environmental people at the EPA??!!?! 🤯

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Trump sent “beachhead teams” to various agencies, including State. I guess they thought State was like the Normandy landings.

More like the Battle of France.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who are these random people from Twitter posting stuff, that gets retweeted and screenshots posted here? Who spends time on these Tweets? Besides our President, who cares about all of these Tweets?

It's 2020. (Oh my god, I know, but it still is. It will be 2020 forever.)

A lot of communication happens through venues unfamiliar to those of us who know what bunions are. Things change. Technology gets used. It's just modern life, and there is certainly nothing wrong with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Quick question, if anyone knows off the cuff -- are these usually practically all volunteer positions, or would they usually be paid through the transition team money that is being held up?

The second one. Biden answered questions about this yesterday.

Even with motivated parties all around, that takes connections. Again, I'm impressed.

I'm also really coming around to the idea that Biden was uniquely fit for the task.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DH looked at the relevant list for his field and about sht a brick for how good the assembled team is. This is amazing.

Same - the State Department list is legit. Several high-ranking and well-respected former employees. I’m impressed.