Former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos praised several states for adopting expanded school choice programs in a Monday op-ed, touting the policy as the solution to failures in the public education system.
“The abject failures of the government-run, union-controlled education system have been laid bare for all to see the past two years,” DeVos said in a Washington Examiner op-ed. “Students across the nation have suffered unthinkable learning loss, unprecedented mental health problems, and lost time and opportunities that can never be recovered or replaced. Those failures, layered on top of multiple pre-COVID failures, are devastating.”
DEVOS: ABOLISHING THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION SHOULD BE IN GOP PLATFORM
DeVos particularly blamed teachers unions, which pushed for extended school closures amid the COVID-19 pandemic, for the difficulties faced by the nation’s students.
“The most recent data conclude it will take students three to five years, on average, to catch up academically to where they would have been had the pandemic school lockouts never happened,” she wrote. “The long-term damage inflicted on them by the school union bosses and their allies who kept schools closed is inexcusable.”
But with the failures of the public school system becoming more evident, DeVos continued, parents and state governments across the country seized on the moment and began pushing for policies that would weaken or eliminate the unions’ control of public education.
DeVos praised Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R-AZ) in particular for championing the nation’s most expansive school choice program. Under legislation enacted this summer, every student in Arizona is eligible for a $7,000 tax credit scholarship that can be used for all sorts of school-related expenses, including private school tuition.
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“The fight to free the educational hostages, our children, is far from over,” DeVos said. “But with parents across the nation awakened and education freedom policies on the march, there are many reasons to believe this back-to-school season will be the best yet.”
