Common Core opponents criticized President-elect Donald Trump for picking Betsy DeVos for U.S. Secretary of Education because of her ties to organizations that support the increasingly unpopular standards. Despite announcing she is “not a supporter – period” of Common Core, Politico reports DeVos is having to continue to insist on her disapproval:
President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for education secretary, Betsy DeVos, pushed back against criticism of her selection today — accusing the media of spreading false stories about her.
“There’s a lot of false news out there,” DeVos said on stage with Trump at a rally in her hometown of Grand Rapids, Mich. “All I ask for is an open mind and the opportunity to share my heart.”
DeVos called for a decrease in the federal government’s role in education. “The answer is local control,” she said, and “giving more choices” to parents. DeVos proposed “letting states set their own high standards and finally putting an end to the federalized Common Core.”
Despite the would-be Ed Sec doubling down on her opposition to Common Core, not everyone is convinced. A Stop Common Core in Michigan leader told Breitbart.com, “We’re not fooled by a single, carefully parsed statement on a webpage that she is ‘not a supporter – period. We know the truth. We experienced it first-hand.”
SOURCE: Politico
IN THIS ISSUE:
- NEW ORLEANS: Only a handful of traditional public schools remain in New Orleans, which is well on its way to becoming the first major city with an all-charter public school system.
- PENNSYLVANIA: The Keystone State is high on the list of states likely to enact education savings account legislation, Watchdog.org reports.
- ESAs: Education savings accounts hold education providers accountable and foster innovation, a new Heritage Foundation report reveals.
- DeVOS: According to the Washington Post, school choice advocates are divided over Trump’s pick for education secretary.
Common Core and Curriculum Watch
- COMMON CORE: Recent dismal international test scores from U.S. kids “confirm a downward trend that appears to track the rocky implementation of the Common Core State Standards,” writes the Weekly Standard.
- SHAKESPEARE: Students at the University of Pennsylvania removed a portrait of The Bard and replaced it with a picture of an African-American writer in the name of “diversity.”
- BAD TEACHERS: The Thomas B. Fordham Institute has released a study showing despite recent efforts to make evaluations more effective, it’s still difficult to fire bad teachers in many districts.
- VOLUNTEERS: The Chicago Teachers Union says it would rather see a school library closed down than allow volunteers to help run it.
- UNIONS: Trump has been blasting labor unions on Twitter and appointing union critics to his cabinet, and union bosses say he’s out to “destroy” the labor movement.
- ARKANSAS: State lawmakers have approved a waiver to allow a person with only a bachelor’s degree to become a teacher in Arkansas.
- PUBLIC SCHOOL: Labor economist and Nobel laureate James Heckman wants public education to begin at birth.
Thank you for reading! If you need a quicker fix of news about school choice, you can find daily updates online at https://heartland.org/topics/education.
Teresa Mull is a policy advisor for education and an editor at The Heartland Institute.
