Senate Needs to Decline Tillerson and DeVos Nominations and Trump Needs Better Choices: Tillerson Will Tempt China to Take Radical Military Action Before New Administration is Ready and DeVos is Heralding a Failed System

The Senate should reject Rex Tillerson for Secretary of State and Betsy DeVos for Secretary of Education.

I know the new President wants his choices confirmed, but I think he’s made a major mistake with Tillerson and another with DeVos.
   
The more that the Senate interviews Tillerson, the more I think he’ll provoke the Chinese into taking precipitous military action in the South China Sea before the new government is ready to take them on in a military confrontation, which China thinks it can win.  (It can’t.)

The new Administration needs time to get on its feet and formulate American foreign policy, and the last thing President Trump needs is another military situation at the beginning of his term.  If Tillerson is going to make statements like “we should deny China access to their man-made islands!” then we should prepare to fight for them.  His lack of foreign policy experience is on full display.

If China uses those island bases to close critical international shipping lanes, that’s different, but egging China on before the Trump Administration is fully set up to deal with an international aggressor?   Not a particularly good idea.

I am encouraged that the Senate is expected to approve his choices for Homeland Security and the Department of Defense either shortly before or after President Trump’s inauguration tomorrow.  That will take care of the noise coming out of CNN and other outlets.

With Betsy DeVos, she’s made one mistake after another, and her results have been less than stellar.  Her Great Lakes Educational Project model is inferior to other private school models and is also inferior to that of many public school districts in the state.   At a time when private schools have been very popular in parts of the state, the state’s overall scores on core subjects have declined, and private school scores have been worse than comparable public schools.

Private school competition to public schools is good ONLY if it shows results, and the DeVos model hasn’t.  If a model is failing, it should not be shared nationally, which is partially why I am opposed to the DeVos nomination.

I’m hoping the Senate rejects  both nominees so that President Trump can pick better candidates.  I have no objections to any of his other nominees so far.