Former Florida governor Jeb Bush was quick to praise the president-elect’s choice of Betsy DeVos for Education secretary when the transition team announced her nomination in November. And on Tuesday, the day of her confirmation hearing, he expounded his support for DeVos in USA Today, praising her commitments to educational equality and local control.
Bush, for whom education reform has been a consistent priority, and DeVos were both early supporters of Common Core State Standards as an avenue to reform. Now, they both cast the standards as federal overreach and advocate a return to local control. They served on the board for the Foundation for Excellence in Education, which Bush founded in 2008.
“The choice of Betsy DeVos to spearhead education reform is inspired,” writes Bush. “Betsy will fight hard to remove the biggest barriers to improving student achievement in America and give millions of young people the opportunity to rise.” When Bush was governor of Florida, he writes, the state grew its number of charter schools and instituted a voucher program; competition between public, charter, and private schools led to measurable improvements in public school performance. He points to his and DeVos’s common faith in parental choice, a movement that puts students’ interests first by promoting families’ freedom to choose what school their children attend.
Speaking of parents and families—last week, his mother, former First Lady Barbara Bush, offered her own resounding endorsement of DeVos in the Portland Press Herald. As first lady, she led a public campaign to combat illiteracy. And she finds in DeVos, “an educator at heart,” a powerful leader for the cause of educational equality:
DeVos’ confirmation hearings are scheduled for 5 p.m. Tuesday and she faces fierce opposition from union leaders and the Democrats who are beholden to them.
