Jerry Falwell Jr, a Trump appointee.

I’m sure the name Jerry Falwell Jr means more to US members than it does to me. A friend passed on a link where I read:

Donald Trump appoints creationist college president to lead higher education reform taskforce

According to Salon:

The focus will be on “overregulation and micromanagement of higher education,” according to university spokesman Len Stevens. This would be consistent with Falwell’s past positions, in which he has opposed federal regulations on funding and accreditation for American schools of higher learning.

Following the appointment of (Calvinist?) Betsy DeVos as Education secretary, should we be concerned for the future of public education in the US?

105 thoughts on “Jerry Falwell Jr, a Trump appointee.

  1. Wow, now there’s an OP with a ton of originality to it!

    Following the appointment of (Calvinist?) Betsy DeVos as Education secretary, should we be concerned for the future of public education in the US?

    No. It could hardly get any worse.

  2. Mung:
    Wow, now there’s an OP with a ton of originality to it!

    No. It could hardly get any worse.

    Exactly- given the blind commitment to the anti-science evolutionism education in the US cannot get any worse.

  3. But then again hopefully students will learn what natural selection really is and not Alan’s car\toon version

  4. I don’t think this panel, or whatever it is, is going to discuss the content of what will be taught in schools.

  5. Frankie,

    But then again hopefully students will learn what natural selection really is and not Alan’s car\toon version

    One can at least hope they get past your level, and aren’t compelled to endlessly recite Mayr while mangling the concept. Although speaking of Mayr:

    “Indeed there is no evidence whatsoever to support any belief in cosmic teleology.

    I guess that’s from his Not-An-Authority period.

  6. To answer your question, Following the appointment of (Calvinist?) Betsy DeVos as Education secretary, should we be concerned for the future of public education in the US?: Of course we should. But we should be concerned for the future of just about everything in the US. This is no different. I only hope we can survive the next four years.

  7. Allan Miller: One can at least hope they get past your level, and aren’t compelled to endlessly recite Mayr while mangling the concept.

    LoL! Actually I could only hope they get to my level and get beyond the bullshit of you and yours. I recite Mayr to support my claims, Alan. And I shouldn’t have to because you and yours should already know all of that by know. So it’s kind of sad that I have to do so.

    If students were taught what natural selection really is evolutionism would be doomed.

  8. John Harshman:
    To answer your question, Following the appointment of (Calvinist?) Betsy DeVos as Education secretary, should we be concerned for the future of public education in the US?: Of course we should. But we should be concerned for the future of just about everything in the US. This is no different. I only hope we can survive the next four years.

    Seeing that we survived the last 8 the next 4 will be easy for those who want real change and for the better.

  9. Frankie,

    If students were taught what natural selection really is evolutionism would be doomed.

    Do you have a particular text or paper in mind that represents what natural selection really is? I’m sure we can both agree that no student will be taught anything based on the say so of somebody on a blog, so is there such a summary of what natural selection really is available that is of a sufficiently high quality so it can be introduced legitimately into the curriculum?

  10. Frankie,

    I recite Mayr to support my claims.

    Was Mayr a creationist or Intelligent Design supporter?

  11. OMagain: Was Mayr a creationist or Intelligent Design supporter?

    Yes, he was, actually.

    He has been dead long enough that he has been transmuted into a creationist.

    It’s similar to the way that radical leftist Martin Luther King has now become a conservative.

  12. The attacks on higher education in the US have been underway for a long time, but they are certainly being escalated under the Trump regime. At present DeVos hasn’t been confirmed and we need only one more Republican to vote against her.

    The thing with Falwell Jr is certainly disturbing but as with much of the Trump regime it is probably more hype than substance. His task force can recommend that universities must accept transfer credits from schools and colleges that teach young-earth creationism. But unless there’s a mechanism for implementing that recommendation, it’s toothless. Scary, of course, but mostly a sinecure to Falwell and the Christian Right.

    More troubling, for those of us who like the separation of church and state, is Trump’s promise to destroy the Johnson amendment, though that would ultimately require an act of Congress.

  13. Kantian Naturalist,

    From your link:

    Specifically, ministers are restricted from endorsing or opposing candidates from the pulpit. If they do, they risk losing their tax-exempt status.

    Follow the money!

  14. Mayr admitted there weren’t any details for evolutionism. He was a believer in promissory notes in tat regard. But he was confident

  15. Donald Trump appoints creationist college president to lead higher education reform taskforce

    and

    Following the appointment of (Calvinist?) Betsy DeVos as Education secretary, should we be concerned for the future of public education in the US?

    What makes you think that a member of a materialism based faith would do a better job? Isn’t what you are insinuating in your post?

    Correct me if I’m wrong…

    If that’s the case, please give me few real reasons why a follower of a faith based on materialism would do a better job.

    What I mean by my arguments is that materialist can’t make their case no matter what argument they present until there is life, even the simplest form of it, as they call it. So, unless you and people who are following this kind of nonsense are thinking YOU can explain all the steps to “simple life forms”, they are no different than the IDiest’s beliefs…

  16. J-Mac:

    they are no different than the IDiest’s

    Mirror, mirror, on the wall
    Who’s the IDiest of them all?

  17. J-Mac: materialism based faith

    Well, Materialism has this track record of being correct, where applicable. Supernaturalism is batting zero.

  18. I couldn’t care less what DeVos’s religious affiliation happens to be.

    My objection to her is that she — together with her husband Dick DeVos, heir to the Amway fortune — have spent millions in promoting charter schools and are determined to destroy public education. (It doesn’t help that her brother, Erik Prince, is the founder of Blackwater.) I doubt she would have become Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Education if she hadn’t donated a lot of money to his campaign. But that’s the Trump Way: appease his ego and you get rewarded for loyalty. “Crony capitalism” at its finest.

    Now we have a nominee for Education who has never served in public education, has never been a teacher, principal, or administrator, and who is explicitly opposed to public education. The only nominee thus far even less qualified is Ben Carson, whose only qualification for being Secretary of Housing and Urban Development is that he’s Black and was born into poverty.

    The Trump regime is one big kakistocracy — “rule by the worst”.

  19. J-Mac,

    Are you referring to your blather about “materialism-based faith”?

    If so, the answer is easy. My physicalism (I generally prefer that word to “materialism”) isn’t a matter of faith. It’s provisional, based on the evidence to date.

    As Rich points out, supernaturalism is batting zero.

  20. Congrats to Falwell. I was a great fan of his father. HJe organized evangelicals/others to take on the establishment etc in deciding whose conclusions on issues is to rule the Americsan nation. Like in organized creationism great leadership brought in the common people to what elites try to monopolize. Its fine to want to get your way but everyone must be a part of the discussion.

    I don’t think there are problems in education in nOrth america on learning stuff. there is forceful people trying to use education to promote conclusions, mostly leftwing ones/ethnic/sexual. into the kids without competition.
    also the censorship of creationism is a great moral and intellectual wrong and illegal.
    the people should decide education things where there are contentions.

  21. The New York Times today sees Falwell as concerned mostly with regulations that try to prevent for-profit universities from cheating students by recruiting them with false promises and then saddling them with student loan debt that their education does not enable them to pay off. Online for-profit universities that do this have proliferated, and the Obama administration had tried to prevent these practices.

    Falwell’s school, Liberty University. is not for-profit but does recruit huge numbers of online students, has made money from their fees, and leaves them with embarassingly large student debt. Although he is not constrained by the regulations, their existence casts him in a bad light. So he wants to delete the regulations. It’s shoot-the-messenger time.

  22. Joe Felsenstein: Falwell’s school, Liberty University. is not for-profit but does recruit huge numbers of online students, has made money from their fees, and leaves them with embarassingly large student debt. Although he is not constrained by the regulations, their existence casts him in a bad light. So he wants to delete the regulations. It’s shoot-the-messenger time.

    I hadn’t realized that Liberty was among the culprits. I know that Obama had tried to rein in the worst offenders, like University of Phoenix.

    One wonders how Trump University will benefit from Falwell’s task force. Crony capitalism at its finest!

  23. One might question the economic utility of most degrees.

    I haven’t run the numbers, but I suspect the mean net present value of a degree from any college is negative.

  24. Alan Fox: Welcome to TSZ, J-Mac. You may want to peruse the rules page.

    LoL!

    Not that I recommend calling anyone “an admitted child abuser,” but if that’s not against the rules what is, other than posting porn and doxxing?

    If J-Mac wants to learn the rules he can look at the posts of others, like our very own keiths.

  25. Mung: We can test this by comparing to TSZ.

    Last I checked TSZ does not have nuclear capability ,that’s one difference

  26. Another day, another unnecessary Constitutional crisis brought about by #themadnessoftheDonald. What are the chances the world will survive this?

    Thanks, libertarians!

  27. J-Mac: What makes you think that a member of a materialism based faith would do a better job?

    What materialism based faith?

  28. I’ll see if I can run Trump’s empire for him while he’s otherwise occupied. I have no experience, but I tell it it like it is and I’m a breath of fresh air. It’s gonna be awesome. It really is. Folks.

  29. petrushka:
    One might question the economic utility of most degrees.

    I haven’t run the numbers, but I suspect the mean net present value of a degree from any college is negative.

    I offer MIT as a counter example.

  30. newton: Last I checked TSZ does not have nuclear capability ,that’s one difference

    I’m working on it, but it takes time to scrape the radium off these old watches.

  31. walto: Another day, another unnecessary Constitutional crisis brought about by #themadnessoftheDonald. What are the chances the world will survive this?

    Thanks, libertarians!

    And non libertarians throughout the Midwest, and Bernie Sanders supporters and James Comey and Vlad.

    You follow the writing of Charles P. Pierce?

  32. There was a rumour of a Trump appointee to appease the libertarians, but no one knows what they stand for anymore.

    Patrick wants government to take over what a parent can teach their children. Either that or he condones child abuse, thinking the government ought to stand idly by while it is happening. Such a libertarian, our Patrick. When he’s not being a Fascist that is.

  33. Mung:
    There was a rumour of a Trump appointee to appease the libertarians, but no one knows what they stand for anymore.

    Yeah, too bad there isn’t something like the Libertarian Party Platform readily available.

    Patrick wants government to take over what a parent can teach their children.

    That is a lie.

    Either that or he condones child abuse, thinking the government ought to stand idly by while it is happening

    As repeatedly explained, not everything immoral is illegal. The cost and risk of giving the government the power to control what people teach their children is too high. That doesn’t change the fact that Sal’s admitted behavior constitutes intellectual and emotional child abuse.

  34. Patrick: The latter explicitly mentions intelligent design.

    LoL. Nice try.

    The new legislation avoids the “Intelligent Design” phrase and uses the “strengths and weaknesses” euphemism instead.

  35. Mung: LoL. Nice try.

    “The new legislation avoids the “Intelligent Design” phrase and uses the “strengths and weaknesses” euphemism instead.”

    My misreading, thanks for catching that.

    The 2014 version of the bill did include the term “intelligent design”, so we certainly know the motivation behind this one.

  36. Mung:
    Ah yes, more lies. Probably straight from the NCSE.

    Are you suggesting that these examples of legislation are not motivated by the desire to get sectarian dogma into public schools?

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