I earlier posted Rep. Rosa DeLauro’s outspoken criticism of Secretary DeVos for diverting CARES (coronavirus relief) funds to her pet projects (anything but public schools). DeVos wants to liberate America’s students from public schools, despite the fact that the legislation does not authorize her to follow her own wishes. DeVos has this wacky idea that learning online is “student-centered,” when it is not. We already know from experience and research that virtual charter schools are typically the worst schools in every state that has them.I should have first posted the DeVos announcement:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 27, 2020
Contact: Press Office
(202) 401-1576 or press@ed.gov
Secretary DeVos Launches New Grant Competition to Spark Student-Centered, Agile Learning Opportunities to Support Recovery from National Emergency
States can compete for more than $300 million to rethink education by creating flexible K-12 models, developing postsecondary tools that aid economic recovery
WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos announced today more than $300 million in discretionary grant funds will be available for states to use to create adaptable, innovative learning opportunities for K-12 and postsecondary learners in response to the COVID-19 national emergency. The grants will be funded through the Education Stabilization Fund (ESF), authorized by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, signed into law by President Donald J. Trump.
“If our ability to educate is limited to what takes place in any given physical building, we are never going to meet the unique needs of every student,” said Secretary DeVos. “The current disruption to the normal model is reaffirming something I have said for years: we must rethink education to better match the realities of the 21st century. This is the time for local education leaders to unleash their creativity and ingenuity, and I’m looking forward to seeing what they do to provide education freedom and economic opportunity for America’s students.”
The CARES Act provides $307.5 million for these discretionary grants, which the Department will divide between two competitions: $180 million for the Rethink K-12 School Models Grant and $127.5 million for the Reimagining Workforce Preparation Grant.
The Rethink K-12 School Models Grant is aimed at opening new, innovative ways for students to access K-12 education with an emphasis on meeting students’ needs during the coronavirus national emergency. The competition is open to state educational agencies which can apply for funds in one of the three categories:
Microgrants for families, so that states can ensure they have access to the technology and educational services they need to advance their learning
Statewide virtual learning and course access programs, so that students will always be able to access a full range of subjects, even those not taught in the traditional or assigned setting
New, field-initiated models for providing remote education not yet imagined, to ensure that every child is learning and preparing for successful careers and lives
The full Notice Inviting Applications (NIA) will be available online today.
The Reimagining Workforce Preparation Grants are designed to expand short-term postsecondary programs and work-based learning programs in order to get Americans back to work and help small businesses return to being our country’s engines for economic growth. The full NIA for this competition will be issued later this week.
Secretary DeVos continued, “Current students and displaced workers will be navigating a very different job market and economy once America reopens. This competition is a tremendous opportunity for states to think creatively and strategically about what their workforce needs will be and how to support entrepreneurs and small business in order to get the economic engines in their states firing on all cylinders again.”
Application packages for these competitions will be available within two weeks. Applicants will then have 60 days to apply. As with most of the Department of Education’s discretionary grant competitions, applications will be evaluated by a panel of independent peer reviewers, and the highest-scoring applications will be funded. For additional information about how to apply, please visit https://oese.ed.gov/offices/education-stabilization-fund/states-highest-coronavirus-burden/.
The Department continues to update http://www.ed.gov/coronavirus with information on COVID-19 for students, parents, educators and local leaders.
For more information about COVID-19, please visit the following websites: coronavirus.gov, cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html, and usa.gov/coronavirus.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
So DeVos admits that the purpose of charters and vouchers is to make money for entrepreneurs, in other words, to make a profit off the taxpayer. It’s always a joy to hear DeVos make charter apologists in the Democratic Party cringe. Keep talking, Betsy! Don’t stop. As a matter of fact, it would be grand for Trump to put DeVos up onstage during press conferences. He can tell Americans to drink bleach, and she can tell Americans to give their taxes to millionaires. Aren’t those two the sharpest tacks on the teacher’s chair.
nice summation 🙂
Devious Devos subscribes to the opportunist’s creed of disaster capitalism.
“If our ability to educate is limited to what takes place in any given physical building, we are never going to meet the unique needs of every student,” said Secretary DeVos.
How did generations of people ever learn before technology? I find it hard to believe that Shakespeare and Einstein were impeded in any way by learning in a building.
Given Ohio’s 20 year history with a “statewide” online charter school- an experiment that ended in the largest corruption and fraud scandal in state history- DeVos can throw as much public money as she wants at the state, there will be NO political or public support for conducting that exact same experiment again.
It’s a shame that the US Department of Education has been utterly and completely captured by the ed reform echo chamber. They’re irrelevant to the 90% of students and families who use public schools. A publicly-funded arm of the ed reform lobby who return little or no value to public school students.
The US Department of Education is second from the bottom in public perception polling- only ICE polls lower. There’s a reason for that.
The Obama Administration took a huge pot of public funding to promote the ed reform gospel on testing and teacher measurement and charter promotion, and now the Trump Administration hands our hundreds of millions for another ed reform experiment in vouchers.
No one, apparently, works on public schools. Not fashionable and “disruptive” enough.
You can’t pay these people to lift a finger on behalf of public schools- simply not interested in our schools or our students. Not a resume builder, apparently.