Betsy DeVos and Education

Before she even began her career, Betsy DeVos learned the value of education in America. Through her mother, she gained insights into how the education system worked and didn’t work. In her recent exit interview with Education Week, DeVos explained the issues with bureaucracy that made it difficult for her to work in the Department of Education.

 

As the 11th U.S. Secretary of Education, DeVos worked with all kinds of policymakers, legislators, and education leaders. She said that the most difficult part was being an outsider to the political circles in Washington, but that it also made her job easier. She proposed new ideas and asked more questions, leading to new policies on student safety, virtual learning, and educational choice.

 

Educational choice in America is a set of programs to help families send students to different schools than where they are zoned. By default, all U.S. students go to a school designated by where they live. This means that if you live in an area with a failing school, that is your designated institution.

 

In the 1990s, educational choice started to rise as lower-income families wanted to send students to better schools. Florida and Louisiana were the first two states to have full student choice programs. However, the Sunshine State was the first one to provide a tuition-based scholarship.

 

Educational choice programs help families who are from lower-income neighborhoods or who live in areas with failing schools. These schools have suffered from years of neglect from the public school system, further complicated by problems in recent administrations. For example, No Child Left Behind tied funding and resources to the scores of standardized tests.

 

DeVos says that there is a way to prioritize students first, and it’s through student choice programs. These include magnet schools, private schools, virtual schools, and homeschooling programs. These were designed to help students who want to choose where they go to school. In addition, philanthropy has been a major motivator to bringing more of these programs online.

 

All 50 states now have educational choice programs, thanks to DeVos’ hard work. She plans to continue working with these programs after her exit from the U.S. Secretary of Education office.

 

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