Betsy DeVos doesn’t have the experience to be a teacher, principal or superintendent, writes Mike Petrilli. But she is qualified to be U.S. Secretary of Education, a job that involves politics and policy.
“With her decades of involvement in politics, with policymakers, and in the trenches of the parental choice movement, DeVos is an inspired choice for the job,” argues Petrilli.
Particularly under Obama’s education secretaries, the feds did indeed stick their noses into curriculum, teacher evaluation, and the intricacies of serving students with disabilities, as well as who can use which restroom. . . . During her confirmation process, DeVos promised time and again to shrink Uncle Sam’s impact on the nation’s schools — to devolve decisions back to states, communities, educators and parents. That’s in keeping with the mandate from Congress, which just over a year ago updated the major K–12 law to expressly limit the federal role in education.
Under DeVos, the Education Department will not try to be a “national school board,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., a former secretary of Education. “There will be no mandates for Common Core, no mandates for teacher evaluation, no mandates for vouchers from the United States Department of Education.”