When she delivered her keynote remarks to the National PTA, Betsy DeVos took potshots at 60 Minutes, claiming the show edited her remarks. She apparently did not explain in what way she was misquoted.
“So, now that I have the opportunity to speak unedited, I’m not afraid to call out folks who defend stagnation for what it really is: failure,” she said, criticizing those who are against school choice given that U.S. students are ranked 40th in math, 23rd in reading and 25th in science compared to other countries.
“The Education secretary is a proponent of school choice, which encompasses policies such as letting students attend religious or charter schools with public funding.”
DeVos did not acknowledge that the US placed dead last in the first international assessment in 1964.
She did not acknowledge that the US was never a high scoring nation and typically scores around the median.
She did not acknowledge that test scores are the result of child poverty and that any effort to raise test scores must address as child poverty.
She did not acknowledge that the US is #1 in child poverty among the OECD nations.
She refuses to acknowledge that school choice does not produce higher test scores. On the whole, school choice lowers test scores. The prime example of the effects of school choice is Michigan, where NAEP scores have fallen since Betsy DeVos’s choice policies were imposed. The other examples are Milwaukee and Detroit, which demonstrate the null impact of choice. Milwaukee has charters, vouchers, and public schools that must take the kids the choice schools don’t want. Detroit has loads of charters. Both are among the lowest scoring urban districts tested by NAEP.
She has an agenda, but it has already failed. She is an ideologue and zealot, who pays no attention to evidence, not even in her own state.
She would destroy public education if it were in her power. But we will stop her. She is already an object of ridicule. It won’t get better.
Diane Ravitch's blog 