INDIANAPOLIS – School choice will be key to President Donald Trump’s education policy, U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos told a pro-choice summit Monday. But school options should be of high quality and accountable to parents and communities, she said.
"When it comes to education, no solution, not even ones we like, should be dictated or run from Washington, D.C.," DeVos said. "Let me be very clear. I firmly believe every state should provide choices and embrace equal opportunity in education but those are decisions states must make. No two states are the same and no two states' approaches will be the same. And that's a good thing. States are the best laboratories of our democracy."
DeVos presented no specific programs in her speech to 300 attendees at a dinner by the American Foundation for Children.
"It is not enough to promote choice simply for the sake of choice. That doesn't serve kids. If a menu is full of bad options, then do you really have a choice at all?" she said.
"The point is to provide quality options that serve students so each of them can grow. Every option should be held accountable but they should be directly accountable to parents and communities not to Washington, D.C., bureaucrats," DeVos said.
Many expected her speech to promote the use of tax credits to funnel public money into private schools as Indiana has done.
Expecting specifics, about 300 people protested her appearance in a rally organized outside the Statehouse by the Indiana State Teachers Association. ISTA criticized the Trump-DeVos agenda for shrinking school choice, not expanding it.
“Championing budget cuts to public education robs communities of the resources needed to provide students with a well-rounded curriculum, one-on-one attention and support services, such as health care and after-school programs. More than 90 percent of Hoosier kids attend public schools and they deserve the resources necessary to succeed,” said ISTA President Teresa Meredith.
Meredith charged DeVos with coming "into office with an intention to promote voucher programs nationwide, as she did here in Indiana through her political action committee the American Federation for Children, which used $1.3 million in political contributions to expand private school vouchers, private school tax credits and charter schools.”
Until she was nominated by Trump as education secretary, DeVos served as chairman of the foundation that promotes school choice with an eye on supporting low-income students in under-performing schools.
About 41,000 Hoosier students participate in the state's voucher program or through tax credit scholarships. About 9,000 Hoosier students go to school under the scholarship program which is used in 17 states.
Under Indiana’s tax credit scholarship, individuals and corporations donate to one of six state-approved scholarship-granting organizations. Donors receive a 50 percent credit against their state taxes. This year, the state was limited to awarding a total of $9.5 million in credits.
At an education conference in Washington, D.C., in March, DeVos praised an Indianapolis Public Schools program for its shift from traditional district-managed schools. DeVos singled out Thomas D. Gregg Elementary School 15, 2302 E. Michigan St., as “an example of new thinking.”
In 2016, the school received an F grade from the state due to low test scores. Parents and teachers turned it into a neighborhood-run school.
One of the speakers at the ISTA rally was a teacher at the Gregg school.
"When political appointees like Secretary DeVos come to Indianapolis and and tell educational professionals like myself she knows what's best for our students — someone who doesn't have a degree in education, who has never taught in our public schools, never even attended a public school herself — it's insulting," said Elaine Bultman, teacher at School 15.