WHAT THEY ARE SAYING – Momentum & Support Growing For Betsy DeVos (Vol. VI)

The praise for DeVos continues as even more influential leaders and experienced educators submit testimonials that explain why she is needed to shake up the status quo and reform the Department of Education:

January 10, 2017

The praise for Betsy DeVos continues to be widespread and unending as even more influential leaders and experienced educators submit testimonials that are effusive in explaining why she is needed to shake up the status quo and reform the Department of Education:

Governor Mitt Romney: “Her key qualification is that she cares deeply about our children and will do everything in her power to offer them a brighter future. She founded two of the nation’s leading education reform organizations and helped open the door to charter schools in her home state of Michigan.”

• “I have known her for many years; She is smart, dynamic, no nonsense and committed. That’s why the education establishment is so animated to stop her.”

• “I am truly excited that someone of Betsy DeVos’s capability, dedication and absence of financial bias is willing to take an honest and open look at our schools. The decades of applying the same old bromides must come to an end. The education establishment and its defenders will understandably squeal, but the interests of our children must finally prevail.”

Governor Jeb Bush: “Simply put, Betsy believes deeply that each child should be equipped with the knowledge to succeed in life. And her passion runs deepest when it comes to extending this opportunity to disadvantaged children, those who struggle and fail in classrooms that don’t merit their needs while parents look on helpless to do anything about it.”

• “I can tell you that Betsy celebrates every child who succeeds in the public school system and supports increasing the choices given to parents within the system.”

• “Betsy will pursue every opportunity to improve all of our nation’s schools and empower states, districts, and parents to maximize the number of high-quality learning opportunities available to our kids…There is no one more qualified to lead the U.S. Department of Education.”

Governors From 20 U.S. States & Territories: “Betsy DeVos will fight to streamline the federal education bureaucracy, return authority back to states and local school boards, and ensure that more dollars are reaching the classroom.”

• “Betsy DeVos also is a passionate supporter of increasing parental engagement in their children’s education and of harnessing the power of competition to drive improvement in all K-12 schools, whether they be public, private or virtual.”

• “We look forward to partnering with Betsy DeVos to ensure that every child has the opportunity to reach his or her potential in the classroom.”

Patrick Cwyana, West Michigan Aviation Academy: “I have long known Betsy and her family to be among the top supporters of our local public schools…But they are also strong proponents of school choice and charters.” 

• “When founding the academy in 2010, the DeVoses’ vision was to operate a school where children from all backgrounds and income levels would be challenged with a rigorous STEM education, could grow and would fit in. They charged me with building an educational culture where the expectation of excellence isn’t limited to academics – it extends to personal conduct and attitude. That expectation applies to our board of directors, administrators, staff, faculty and students.” 

Glenn Harlan Reynolds, USA Today: “The long knives have come out for Education secretary nominee Betsy DeVos. But her critics aren’t attacking her because they think she’ll do a bad job. They’re attacking her because they’re afraid she’ll do a good job.”

• “DeVos supports charter schools, education vouchers, and other ways of letting parents control where their kids go to school. The people who hate this idea are mostly, in one way or another, people who instead want a captive market of taxpayer-funded pupils. But what’s good for politicians, administrators, and teachers’ unions isn’t necessarily good for kids.”

Michael McShane, Director of Show-Me Institute’s Education Policy: “But a careful look at her record in Michigan and around the country, where she has spent decades as an advocate for children, philanthropist, and political power broker, reveals a fairly traditional, center-right education reformer. DeVos has a long history of supporting the kinds of accountability and school-choice policies that a broad swath of the education-reform community has championed over the last two decades.”

• “Indeed, in the voucher world, DeVos is known as having a robust stance on school accountability.”

• “And one thing we do know about her is that she can build strong relationships and recognizes the importance of reaching across the political aisle.”

Paul Crookston, National Review Collegiate Network Fellow: “Choice is exactly what defenders of the public-school status quo refuse to allow and exactly what parents need. DeVos and her allies should continue fighting to provide it.”

Max Eden, The Manhattan Institute: ““All in all, a fair review of the record suggests that DeVos stands in the middle of the school accountability mainstream, supporting A-to-F grades, closing poor performers by default, and raising authorizer standards.”

Howard Fuller, Director of the Transformation of Learning at Marquette University & Robin Harris, New America Fellow: “President-elect Trump promised to put school choice at the top of the new administration’s agenda. And he backed it up by choosing longtime choice advocate Betsy DeVos to lead the Department of Education.”

Daniel Henninger, The Wall Street Journal: “But, you know, economic growth has passed by the inner cities before. Black people have seen growth come and go. What they really need are better schools. And Betsy DeVos, as Education Secretary, is going to push both choice and charters in competition to the public schools in a way that Barack Obama never did. He never really got behind those ideas. And while education is a local responsibility, I think the president and Betsy DeVos can put their moral authority behind those movements at the local level.”