As pandemic tests public schools, Betsy DeVos pushes school choice - The Washington Post

As pandemic tests public schools, Betsy DeVos pushes school choice - The Washington Post

As pandemic tests public schools, Betsy DeVos pushes school choice

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has long believed that the federal government should have little to do with education.

This spring, with schools facing their most significant crisis in decades, DeVos has stuck to that core conviction. She hasn’t weighed in on how schools might teach remotely. She’s said little about what they should consider when reopening, beyond the need to consult health authorities.

And through it all, she has pressed her central agenda: that students and families should have choices beyond their traditional public schools, and that tax dollars should follow those choices. She calls it “education freedom.”

The coronavirus, she has said, offers a “silver lining,” showing Americans that traditional schooling is not the only way. “This really is a moment for transformation,” she told conservative talk show host Glenn Beck in April.

“Education freedom” is also part of the solution to issues raised by the death of George Floyd at the hands of police, President Trump and DeVos said last week. Trump — at the urging of his education secretary, according to a DeVos aide — called on Congress to pass a school choice program, citing it as an example of how he is “leading efforts to revitalize America’s underserved communities.”

“School choice is a big deal because access to education is the civil rights issue of our time,” he said in Dallas.

Teachers unions and many Democrats oppose school choice plans because they divert money from public schools to private and religious schools, some of which discriminate on the basis of religion or sexual orientation.

DeVos, though, was thrilled with Trump’s shout-out to her $5 billion tax credit proposal, which would CONTINUE READING: As pandemic tests public schools, Betsy DeVos pushes school choice - The Washington Post