United States Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos visited Leon County Tuesday, making stops at Holy Comforter Episcopal School and the Florida State University Research School. DeVos used the trip to champion school choice and individual liberties.
Trump Administration Education Secretary Betsy DeVos presents herself as a champion of religious education and school choice. Itâs fitting that her first stop in Tallahassee was at Holy Comforter Episcopal School.
Crosses are prominently hung in classrooms and the school honor code directs students to let Godâs love guide them. DeVos first visited the 5th grade classroom of Mrs. Russell to catch a lesson on idioms.
âWater under the bridgeâŚI wonder what that means?" Russell prompted the class. "I wonder if Madam Secretary knows what that means?â
DeVos logged her answer through an online program with the rest of the class. She then moved across the hall to meet Mrs. Curetonâs kindergarteners and pulled out Dr. Seussâs Oh The Places Youâll Go.
âCongratulations! Today is your day! Youâre off to great places. Youâre off and away!" she read. "You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose!â
Holy Comforter charges more than $11,000 per year in tuition. That enables school-issued MacBook Pros, programmable robots made of Legos, and 3-D printers in the science labs. Based on resources alone, the places these students will go could be very different than those at Oak Ridge or Riley Elementary. Those public schools both earned D grades this year. But DeVos says choice and individual liberty should trump other issues.
âSo again I would just say, instead of focusing on buildings and systems, we should just focus on individual students,â she said.
When questioned about solutions for chronically underperforming schools, she saysâŚ
âParents should be more and more empowered to make the right choice for their child, for their children to send them to a school or schools that are right for them," DeVos said. "Florida has made great steps in that direction. I think that needs to and will continue.â
For those who canât leave a failing system, itâs not clear what DeVosâs solution is.
Denise Howard is a mother of three, with children at FSUâs lab school and Conley Elementary. She came to DeVosâ second visit pushing her youngest in a stroller, and carrying a sign that reads âKeep Public Schools Fundedâ.
âShe wants to funnel funds away from public schools and put them in charter schools and private schools and I disagree with that,â Howard said.
Howard criticizes DeVosâs support of for-profit charters. She doesnât want her childâs school to be lumped into that category.
âI think thatâs what upsets me some. If she is trying to use Florida High, Florida State University Schools as this shining example of charter schools. That is not her brand of charter school,â she said.
FSUS is actually considered public, and treated as its own school district.
DeVosâs visit got pushback from other parents, and from the Florida Education Association, the stateâs teachersâ union. The FEA argues that DeVosâs policies favor alternative schools, which donât have to meet the same accountability requirements. At the writing of this story, DeVos has no plans to visit a Leon County public school.
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