Federal Education Policy and the Expansion of Privatized Choice: A Call for Papers from the AASA Journal of Scholarship & Practice

Secretary DeVos’ Agenda for Choice For her January 17, 2017, confirmation hearing, Secretary of Education nominee, Betsy DeVos, in a written response to committee questions about her support for virtual charter schools, made the claim, “High quality virtual charter schools provide valuable options to families, particularly those who live in rural areas where brick-and-mortar schools might not have the capacity to provide the range of courses or other educational experiences for students” (Turner, 2017). DeVos cited several examples of cyber-charters with graduation rates that exceeded 90%; however, fact-checking by Education Week revealed that DeVos grossly overstated the success of these schools (Herold, 2017).

In a speech to educators in Austin, Texas, in 2015, DeVos stated her position on privatized choice and vouchers: “Let the education dollars follow each child, instead of forcing the child to follow the dollars. This is pretty straightforward. And it’s how you go from a closed system to an open system that encourages innovation.