Betsy DeVos was asked to address education reporters at their annual convention. She said no.
Every U.S. education secretary has found time to address the Education Writers Association convention, and the organization was hoping that Betsy DeVos would agree to do the same thing at its 2017 convention in Washington D.C. It’s not happening.
Caroline Hendrie, EWA executive editor, said the association invited DeVos to speak at the convention right after she was confirmed by the Senate as education secretary on Feb. 7 (which, you may remember, happened only after Mike Pence broke a tie in the Senate, becoming the first vice president in history to do so for a Cabinet nominee).
When no response was forthcoming, Hendrie said the invitation was renewed several times, but it was not until late April that a staff member at the Education Department called to decline. Why? According to Hendrie, “They couldn’t make it work for her schedule.”
The Education Department did not respond to a query about why they couldn’t make it work.
The conference, at the new FutureEd think tank at Georgetown’s McCourt School of Public Policy, is scheduled for May 31-June 2, Wednesday through Friday. Though DeVos does not often have public events on Fridays, she does on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
DeVos has not made herself easily available — or available at all — to reporters who are covering her, and the Education Department does not always respond to questions posed by education journalists. Now she is declining an opportunity to address the journalists who cover her. Some would call that a missed opportunity.
Betsy DeVos was asked to address education reporters at their annual convention. She said no. - The Washington Post:
