Betsy DeVos: “School Choice Programs Lead to More Integrated Schools”
In response to Senator Patty Murray’s question 115 (among 139 written questions asked by Murray of DeVos following DeVos’ January 17, 2017, Senate HELP Committee hearing), DeVos states that school choice programs increase integration:
Murray:If a school choice plan was presented to the Department for funding, but there was compelling evidence to indicate this plan would increase segregation by race and/or by socioeconomic status, would the Department approve it? How can you justify this decision?DeVos:I do not support programs that lead to increased segregation. Empirical evidence finds school choice programs lead to more integrated schools than their public school counterparts.
DeVos names no specific study, and she offers no caution.
She writes definitively that School Choice Leads to More Integrated Schools.
But there are studies that refute her “more integrated” claim.
Here are a few, in brief:
Brookings analyzed nine years of federal data and found no overall relationship between charter school choice and racial segregation. However, the researcher suggested that the design of particular school choice programs vary and therefore could influence school segregation for better or worse.
The National Center for Educational Policy (NEPC) echoes the Brookings observation that school segregation can be shaped– sometimes by school policies and practices:
Even without school choice, America’s schools would be shockingly segregated, in large part because of housing policies and school district boundaries. School choice policies that do not have sufficient protections against unconstrained, segregative choices do exacerbate the problem. In anBetsy DeVos: “School Choice Programs Lead to More Integrated Schools” | deutsch29: