Betsy DeVos On School Choice Policy: States Should Be Answerable To Parents, Not Washington

In a speech at an Indianapolis summit hosted by the American Federation for Children Education, Monday, Secretary Betsy DeVos spoke regarding the policy of “School Choice” advocated by President Donald Trump’s administration. Although DeVos did not give away any immediate details regarding the policy, she did make it explicitly clear that the ultimate choice of the children’s education will be left with the parents and not Washington D.C.

“When it comes to education, no solution, not even ones we like, should be dictated or run from Washington, D.C.,” DeVos said, Fox News reported.

Under the “School Choice” policy, every child would receive a vast number of quality choices when it comes to picking schools, informed DeVos, branding it "the most ambitious expansion" of school choice in the history of the United States.

She further added that American school education is stuck in “a closed system that relies on one-size-fits-all solutions,” from the ancient times and the new policy would endeavor to make it more flexible with a wide range of choices for parents and their children.

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Some of the areas of improvement when it comes to education would be the role that technology plays in school education and allowing parents to have the primary role when it comes to choosing the education option that is the best for their children.

DeVos also hoped that “School Choice” would finally give the states both the freedom and the funding to expand the choice of schools and building quality education programs.

“This means we have the opportunity to get Washington and the federal bureaucracy out of the way so parents can make the right choices for their kids,” she added, National Review reported. The education secretary stressed on the fact that it is the states which must “be held accountable, but they should be directly accountable to parents and communities, not to Washington, D.C., bureaucrats.”

“Creating a new federal bureaucracy” and “bribing states with their own taxpayers’ money” is not the way to make a better future for the youth of the country, DeVos said. “We should have zero interest in substituting the current big-government approach for our own big-government approach,” she added.

Read: Will Education Secretary's Statement Hinder Trump's Effort To Boost HBCU Funds?

DeVos also sternly mentioned that the states who do not wish to participate in the “School Choice” program would be making a big mistake.

“They [the states] will be hurting the children and families who can least afford it. If politicians in a state block education choice, it means those politicians do not support equal opportunity for all kids,” she said.

DeVos also pushed against the belief that “School Choice” is aimed to be a boon to charter and private schools alone, leaving the public schools neglected.

“It shouldn’t matter if learning takes place in a traditional public school, a Catholic school, a charter school, a non-sectarian private school, a Jewish school, a home school, a magnet school, an online school, any customized combination of those schools — or in an educational setting yet to be developed,” she said.

Regardless of the optimistic propaganda that DeVos has been promising since the inception of “School Choice,” there are many teachers who believe that the policy aims to cut back funding on the barely funded public schools.

“It shouldn’t matter if learning takes place in a traditional public school, a Catholic school, a charter school, a non-sectarian private school, a Jewish school, a home school, a magnet school, an online school, any customized combination of those schools — or in an educational setting yet to be developed,” DeVos said.

Following DeVos' speech, Washington Sen. Patty Murray said: “Once again, Secretary DeVos is putting her extreme privatization agenda ahead of our students. DeVos claims she wants to provide more choices for students and families, but in reality, voucher programs siphon taxpayer funds from public schools to unaccountable private and religious schools that often leave children worse off. If Secretary DeVos truly wanted to help students across the country, she would abandon her ideological commitment to privatization and invest in our public schools so every child has access to a quality education in their neighborhood.”

Correction: An earlier version of this story wrongly attributed a quote by Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to Washington Sen. Patty Murray. The error has been fixed.