3/29/2017

BUDGET/CABINET/EDUCATION/TRUMP PEOPLE/BETSY DEVOS: “Betsy DeVos, in her first extended policy address as education secretary, argued on Wednesday [3-29-17] for an expansion of school choice programs, pointing to lagging test scores and a program championed by the Obama administration that funneled billions into low-performing schools but failed to produce better academic outcomes.
Speaking at the Brookings Institution, which released a ranking of choice options in the country’s 100 largest school districts, Ms. DeVos made her case for choice policies that she said focused on the ‘individual child.’ And she called for the rejection of an ‘us versus them mentality’ when it comes to investing in programs, like charter schools and school vouchers, to which President Trump has proposed giving part of a $1.4 billion funding increase in the fiscal year that begins in October.
‘Our nation’s commitment is to provide a quality education to every child to serve the greater public, common good,’ Ms. DeVos said in her address. ‘Accordingly, we must shift the paradigm to think about education funding as investments made in individual children, not in institutions or buildings.’
While Ms. DeVos offered no new details about the Education Department’s budget — which in the president’s budget blueprint takes a $9 billion, or 13.5 percent, cut — she rejected the notion that money was a panacea for the challenges facing public schools.”

-Erica L. Green, “Betsy DeVos Calls for More School Choice, Saying Money Isn’t the Answer,” The New York Times online, March 29, 2017