Betsy DeVos blasts ‘Tinseltown’ for ignoring a movie she likes and calls her critics ‘bullies’ - The Washington Post

Betsy DeVos blasts ‘Tinseltown’ for ignoring a movie she likes and calls her critics ‘bullies’ - The Washington Post

Betsy DeVos blasts 'Tinseltown’ for ignoring a movie she likes and calls her critics ‘bullies’

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Wednesday used a speech marking the 15th anniversary of a school voucher program to blast Hollywood for not supporting a movie she likes. She also used a new term for her critics: “bullies.”

DeVos appeared at a celebration of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, the only federally funded school voucher program in the country. It uses public money to provide subsidies to more than 1,000 low-income families to help pay for tuition at private and religious schools.

The controversial program was signed into law in 2004 by President George W. Bush but had its funding phased out in 2009 by President Barack Obama before being restored by a Republican Congress.

For decades, DeVos has been a big supporter of vouchers and similar programs that use public money for private and religious education. A leader in the “school choice” movement, DeVos has used her pulpit as education secretary to extol alternatives to traditional public schools. Before she was tapped by President Trump to run the Education Department, DeVos called public schools “a dead end” and has made clear, as has Trump, that the administration’s key education priority is expanding “choice” options.

DeVos and her supporters say many public schools fail students and that families deserve alternatives. Critics say public money should not be used for religious education and that vouchers drain resources from public schools, which educate most of America’s schoolchildren.

Several reports in recent years on school voucher programs throughout the country show students in those programs score lower on standardized tests than their peers who don’t get vouchers. But voucher supporters say these studies don’t account for all of the benefits.

In her speech Wednesday, DeVos described critics who oppose her school “choice” agenda as “bullies.” That agenda includes the administration’s $5 billion Education Freedom Scholarships proposal, which CONTINUE READING: Betsy DeVos blasts ‘Tinseltown’ for ignoring a movie she likes and calls her critics ‘bullies’ - The Washington Post