What is Education Secretary Betsy DeVos doing with the rapper Pitbull in Miami?
There Betsy DeVos goes again — literally.
On Wednesday, the education secretary visited an all-girls charter school in Washington D.C., along with first lady Melania Trump and Queen Rania Al-Abdullah of Jordan. In a statement afterward, DeVos emphasized her support for school choice by saying that Excel Academy “is a shining example of a school meeting the needs of its students, parents and community” and shows “the transformation that can happen when parents are empowered to choose the education setting that best fits their child’s individual needs.”
DeVos then headed to Florida where over two days she will visit a handful of Miami-area schools that run something of a gamut of different educational offerings. They include a private Christian school; a traditional public elementary school; two institutions of higher education; and a charter school started by the popular rapper Pitbull, criticized by some for profanity-laced and misogynist lyrics.
DeVos, a devout Christian, appeared on Thursday with Pitbull, whose real name is Armando Christian Pérez, at the charter school he started in Miami, underscoring her commitment to making school choice expansion her top priority.
This is DeVos’s third time as education secretary visiting schools in Florida, which she has frequently said is a national model for school choice. She has been a longtime ally of former Florida governor Jeb Bush, supporting his national education reform agenda of increasing charter schools and voucher/voucher-like programs that use public money for private and religious school tuition. She also has strong family ties to Florida, where her husband, Amway heir Dick DeVos, own a home along with other DeVos family members. What’s more, her father-in-law bought the Orlando Magic basketball team in 1991, and the family owns it still.
On Thursday, DeVos visited CARE Elementary School, formally known as the Christian Academy for Reaching Excellence, in the Overtown section of downtown Miami. CARE is part of the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship program, which offers tax incentives for individuals and corporations to donate money to organizations that provide “scholarships” for private and religious school tuition and other educational expenses. Supporters say such programs help students from low-income families attend private schools, while critics say they are privatizing public education, offer the public no accountability and violate the constitutional tenet of separation of church and state.
DeVos on Thursday also visited Florida International University’s Nicole Wertheim College of Nursing and Health Sciences, and the SLAM Charter School. SLAM is an acronym for sports What is Education Secretary Betsy DeVos doing with the rapper Pitbull in Miami? - The Washington Post: