Betsy DeVos Urges Americans to Embrace ‘Education Freedom’
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is calling on Americans to embrace a vision of “education freedom” that empowers students and parents with a “multitude of pathways” toward new opportunities.
DeVos, speaking during a question-and-answer session Thursday at the Conservative Political Action Conference, said one such pathway would be educational savings accounts to benefit military families who don’t want to send their children to failing public schools.
“For too many decades,” Americans have had a “singular focus on going to a four-year college or university,” DeVos said during the exchange with Kay Coles James, president of The Heritage Foundation. “But there is a multitude of pathways [with] many opportunities beyond high school.”
James and DeVos had a wide-ranging discussion at CPAC that touched on the Trump administration’s policy goals, the prospects for school choice, options for military families, and the status of First Amendment freedoms in educational settings.
DeVos said military families face unique challenges in meeting the educational needs of their children, and that making available federal funds for use in education savings accounts is one solution. The Heritage Foundation has championed the idea.
More than one-third of active-duty military families include school-aged children, DeVos said. These families should be able to “tap into education savings …read more