"That's Not Proficiency," Confirmation Hearings for Drumpf's Cabinet

Drumpf's pick for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, was raked over the coals during her confirmation hearing. Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) asked her opinion on rating schools on student proficiency versus student growth, apparently (and understandably, now that I am familiar with it) a major debate among education policy-makers. Sen. Franken favors rating students on growth, as that would be a better indicator of student progress than proficiency. If a student comes into a school and is already proficient in something, it doesn't necessarily reflect well on the school if the student tests highly proficient, they already were highly proficient. It's a much better indicator of school success to measure growth. That's a simple concept, I just explained it in a few sentences, but the woman tapped by Drumpf to head the United States Department of Education was completely unfamiliar with the debate. She did not understand what Franken was talking about when he brought it up.

Here is video:

The above video appears to currently be the top-trending video on YouTube.

Ms. DeVos also took questions from Senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Chris Murphy among others.

She seems like a nice person who genuinely cares and at the same time she seemed out of her league, as far as being qualified to run the Department of Education. The exchange with Franken alone seems to demonstrate it.

Also in the hot seat: Scott Pruitt, Drumpf's nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency. Dan Rather said it well in a Facebook post on December 8, 2016:

Donald Trump's pick of Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency could easily turn the name of the group he might soon lead into a mockery. The EPA is the cop on the beat to make sure our air is safe to breathe and our water safe to drink. Its role, in the age of climate change, is more vital than ever. You could argue that its mission now is one of national - and global - security for life as we know it. It was created by a Republican president - Richard Nixon - at a time that now seems utterly foreign, when the health of the planet was largely a bipartisan concern. But Pruitt is not of the legacy of Teddy Roosevelt - or even Nixon. He has, at seemingly every turn of his public, life [sic] worked hard to lessen if not destroy the very regulations and initiatives he will now be tasked to oversee - on soot-free air, water free of poisonous chemicals, and of course the crisis of climate change.

Regarding the impact of lead on children, Pruitt apparently remarked in his hearing "I don't know. I've not looked at the scientific research on that." Quoting Mother Jones' Kevin Drum now:

If Pruitt had been asked about the effects of zirconium dioxide on Alzheimer's disease or something, then sure. Nobody knows everything, after all. But lead paint has been in the news for something like 50 years now and Flint's water pipes have been in big, bold headlines for the past two. You'd have to work pretty hard not to be aware of what lead does.