The long game of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has been pushing the expansion of school choice — alternatives to traditional public schools — for decades. You could say she has been playing a long game.
DeVos, a Michigan billionaire who has publicly called traditional public education a “dead end,” says all parents should have educational choices for their children. Her critics argue that she has been trying to privatize public education, with her advocacy efforts having begun in Michigan and then moving to other states.
DeVos and President Trump have made clear that their top priority in education is to expand school choice, not continue the efforts of former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama to hold schools “accountable” largely through test scores. This post looks at how she has operated and what her ultimate goals seem to be. It was written by Carol Burris, a former New York high school principal who is executive director of the nonprofit Network for Public Education.
Burris was named the 2010 Educator of the Year by the School Administrators Association of New York State, and in 2013, the organization named her the New York State High School Principal of the Year. She has chronicled problems with standardized-test based school reform and the school choice movement on this blog for years.
By Carol Burris
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is not always confused by the facts, such as when she said that historically black colleges and universities were “pioneers of school choice,” or that a school in Montana probably had a gun to protect itself from “potential grizzlies.” Her recent speech at this year’s convening of the American Federation for Children was no exception.
If you are not familiar with the American Federation for Children, you should be. SourceWatch tells you all that you need to know:
The American Federation for Children (AFC) is a conservative 501(c)(4) dark money group that promotes the school privatization agenda via the AmericanThe long game of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos - The Washington Post: