Education Secretary Fails to Answer Basic Questions About Education
Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos said she has not visited schools that are “underperforming” and struggled to admit that schools in her home state of Michigan, where she has spent decades leading the charge for unregulated charter schools, are actually performing poorly.
DeVos’s “60 Minutes” interview Sunday night was widely panned with many, including news outlet Axios, saying the Education Secretary “struggle[d] to answer fairly basic questions on school performance.”
Asked about school funding by CBS news’ Lesley Stahl, DeVos insisted it was OK to take money away from schools that are underperforming because she believes in investing in students not schools. She was unable to answer what happens to students left in those underperforming schools.
Touting “school choice” and claiming charter schools raise the level of education even in non-charter public schools, DeVos pointed to Florida, but Stahl asked her about Michigan, where DeVos has had more impact on education than possibly any other single person – and schools Stahl said, are not doing well.
“Have the public schools in Michigan gotten better?” the “60 Minutes” journalist asked.
“I don’t know, overall, I can’t say overall that they have all gotten better,” DeVos stammered.
“The whole state is not doing well,” Stahl pointed out.
“Well there are certainly lots of pockets where the students are doing well,” the Education Secretary said.
“Your argument that if you take funds away is not working in Michigan, where you had a huge impact and influence over the direction of the school system,” Stahl concluded.
“I hesitate to talk about all schools in general, because schools are made up of the students attending them,” DeVos, struggling to advocate for her position, insisted.
“The schools here are doing worse than they did,” Stahl noted.
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