Prepared Remarks by Secretary DeVos to JFK Jr. Forum at Harvard Kennedy
School
Following
are the prepared remarks by U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to the “JFK
Jr. Forum – A conversation on empowering parents” today at the Harvard
Kennedy School in Cambridge, Mass.
***
Thank
you, Dean Fung, for that kind introduction. And Dean Elmendorf, thank you for
the opportunity to be here at the Kennedy School, truly one of the gems not
just of Harvard, but of all of American postsecondary education.
Professor
Peterson, I look forward to our conversation but I first want to recognize the
significant and influential contributions to the advancement of school choice
you’ve made over the years. Through both the Program on Education Policy and
Governance here at Harvard and Education Next, few scholars have left such
indelible fingerprints on this critical conversation. Thank you for continuing to
facilitate that dialogue.
And
a special thanks to President Faust for your decade of leadership as president
of this, one of America’s finest institutions of higher learning. As you, and
Harvard, prepare for your next steps, I wish you nothing but the best.
Here
in Cambridge, there are many great people working on many great ideas to better
the lives of all Americans and people across the globe. And that’s been the
case for a very long time. Your graduates have gone on to shape culture and society,
create businesses and new technologies, help cure diseases and yes, lead
governments at all levels around the globe.
It’s
a privilege to be here at the Kennedy School. I don’t want to talk about my age,
but President John F. Kennedy is the first president I can personally remember
– though I can’t say I remember all that much.
But
I do know that President Kennedy understood the proper role of the state and
once warned that: “Every time we try to lift a problem from our own shoulders,
and shift that problem to the hands of the government…we are sacrificing the
liberties of our people.”
President
Kennedy had it right then, and despite the fact that we’ve all too often
disregarded his observations, he’s still right today.
One
of the many pernicious effects of the growth of government is that its people
worry less and less about each other, thinking their worries are now in the
hands of so-called “experts” in Washington.
There
is perhaps no better example than our current education system. Many inside -- and outside -- government insist
a government system is best equipped to educate children. In that fantasy
scenario, the state replaces the family, the schoolhouse becomes the home, and
the child becomes a constituent.
Not
too long ago, the American Federation for Teachers tweeted at me. The union
wrote, “Betsy DeVos says public should invest in individual students. NO, we
should invest in a system of great public schools for all kids.”
The
union bosses made it clear: they care more about a system – one that was
created in the 1800s – than they do about students. Their focus is on school
buildings instead of school kids. Isn’t education supposed to be all about
kids?
Education
is an investment in individual
students, and that’s why funding and focus should follow the student, not the
other way around.
I’ve
been on the job now for some time, and I came into office with a core belief: it
is the inalienable right and
responsibility of parents to choose
the learning environment that best meets their child’s unique, individual needs.
I’m
even more convinced of that today.
This
symposium rightly asks us to consider the “future” of school choice. But the
current reality is: the vast majority of futures in America today are left to
chance, not to choice.
The
world got to see what many of us already knew in the film “Waiting for Superman.”
Parents who want to free their child from a failing school are sometimes
allowed by the “system” to enter a lottery for only a few seats in a different school.
Even today, thousands of children vie for limited openings. The students are
numbered and often represented as plastic balls rolling around in a cage as if children
were a part of a bingo game.
I
suggest that any sycophant of the “system” or skeptic of choice visit one of
these lotteries. Watch the faces of parents – many of whom struggle to get by
every day – hidden in their hands or covered with tears because they didn’t
“win” a new future for their son or daughter. This scene is heart-wrenching and
downright disgraceful. Children’s futures aren’t to be gambled.
There
are too many kids who are trapped in a school that doesn’t meet their needs.
There are too many parents who are denied the fundamental right to decide the best
way to educate their child.
It’s
what makes me so passionate about changing this paradigm once and for all.
Now,
I’ve been called the “school choice Secretary” by some. I think it’s meant as
an insult, but I wear it as a badge of honor! So let’s talk for a moment about
what “choice” really is.
School
choice. Defenders of the “system” would have you believe it means vouchers,
right? And charter schools. They say it means private schools, or maybe even
religious schools. It means for-profit schools. They say it means taking money
from public schools -- no accountability, no standards, the wild west, the market
run amuck.
Well,
I’ve got to give it to them; they’ve done a mighty fine job setting the scene
for that house of horrors in the press.
They
did so by trying to paint an indelible line, forcing a false dichotomy: if you
support giving parents any option – any say – you must therefore be
diametrically opposed to public schools, public school teachers and public
school students.
Yet
nothing could be further from the truth!
Think
about food. Yes, food. That’s probably easy for many of you right now…it is
just about dinner time.
Like
education, we all need food to grow and thrive. But we don’t all want or need
the exact same thing at the exact same time. What tastes good to me may not taste
good to you. What’s working for me right now might not work a few years from
now.
Accordingly,
we choose how to best get the food that meets our unique needs.
Think
about how you eat. You could visit a grocery store, or a convenience store, or
a farmer’s market to buy food and cook at home. Or you could visit a
restaurant. Maybe a sit-down place, maybe a fast food joint, maybe a hybrid
that combines the best of both.
Near
the Department of Education, there aren’t many restaurants. But you know what —
food trucks started lining the streets to provide options. Some are better than
others, and some are even local restaurants that have added food trucks to
their businesses to better meet customer’s needs.
Now,
if you visit one of those food trucks instead of a restaurant, do you hate
restaurants? Or are you trying to put grocery stores out of business?
No.
You are simply making the right choice for you based on your individual needs
at that time.
Just
as in how you eat, education is not a binary choice. Being for equal access and opportunity –
being for choice – is not being against anything.
I’m
not for or against one type, one brand or one breed of school choice. I’m not
for any type of school over another.
But
the definitions we have traditionally worked from have become tools that divide
us. Isn’t “the public” made up of students and parents? Isn’t “public money”
really their money – the
taxpayer’s money?
And
doesn’t every school aim to serve
the public good? A school that prepares its students to lead successful lives
is a benefit to all of us. The definition of public education should be to
educate the public. That’s why we should fight less about the word that comes
before “school.”
I
suspect all of you here at Harvard, a private school, will take your education
and contribute to the public good.
When
you chose to attend Harvard, did anyone suggest you were against public
universities? No, you and your family sat down and figured out which education
environment would be the best fit for you. You compared options, and made an
informed decision.
No
one seems to criticize that choice. No one thinks choice in higher education is
wrong. So why is it wrong in elementary, middle, or high school?
Instead
of dividing the public when it comes to education, the focus should be on the
ends, not the means.
We
should be for students – all
students. And that’s why I’m for parents
having access to the learning environment that’s the right fit for their child.
I believe in students, and I trust
parents.
So,
with that understanding of “choice,” what does the future look like?
I
am not a creature of Washington, so I am not afraid to say this: we do…not…know
what the future of school choice looks like! And that’s not only something with
which I am okay, it is something I celebrate and embrace.
The
future of choice should be whatever parents want for their children. The future
of choice relies upon parents being empowered to make choices for their
children.
What
this looks like for one family in Wyoming will be different from what an
Indiana family decides. In fact, what choice looks like for one child may be
different than what it looks like for his or her own sibling!
States
are different, families are dynamic and children are unique. Each should be free to pursue different
avenues that lead each child to his or her fullest future.
That’s
why I wholeheartedly believe the future of choice does not begin with a new
federal mandate from Washington!
That
might sound counterintuitive to some, coming from the U.S. Secretary of
Education, but after eight months in Washington – and three decades working in
states – I know if Washington tries to mandate
“choice,” all we’ll end up with is a mountain of mediocrity, a surge of
spending and a bloat of bureaucracy to go along with it.
But
Washington does have an important supporting role to play in the future of
choice. We can amplify the voices of those who only want better for their kids.
We can assist states who are working to further empower parents, and urge those
who haven’t. We don’t need a new federal program to administer. Washington, and
in particular the U.S. Department of Education, just needs to get out of the
way!
That’s
because the real future of choice is in states. It’s their futures to shape.
And it’s already underway today.
I
recently went on a tour of the heartland to visit the teachers, parents, and
students who are shaping their own futures. We called it the “Rethink School
Tour” because I wanted to highlight, and learn from, innovative educators who are
breaking free of the standard mold to better meet the needs of their students.
What
I saw was encouraging. Traditional public schools, charter public schools,
independent private schools, parochial schools, homeschools – even a high
school at a zoo! They were all different, all with unique approaches. But what
they all had in common was just that: a deliberate focus on serving their
students -- and students and parents chose
them.
What
worked in those schools, for those students, might not work everywhere. And it
might not work for you. But it worked for them. And that’s the future of school
choice.
There
was another common characteristic these very diverse schools shared: they all
embraced doing right by their students without anyone in Washington giving them
a permission slip to do so, or more importantly, without anyone in Washington
telling them “no.”
That
is also the future of “choice.” Just as
no one school, regardless of its quality or rigor, is the right fit for every
student, there is no magic one-size-fits-all approach from Washington, DC -- or
any state capitol --when it comes to education.
The
future of choice lies in the states: in places that have been at the forefront
of this effort for several years, like Arizona, Florida, Indiana and Wisconsin;
and in places that are just now entering the arena like Arkansas, Mississippi,
Montana, and even where some might have thought unthinkable, Illinois.
Today,
26 states and the District of Columbia offer more than 50 different private
school choice programs that allow parents more
opportunity to access more
educational options to serve their kids’ needs.
And while there are similarities, no two are the same. Different states,
different needs, different students, different solutions. That’s the future of choice.
It’s
important for all of us to remember that we’re not just talking about abstract
theory or some wild social experiment here.
This is about putting people – putting parents and students – above policies
and politics.
I’ve seen the tremendous impact of empowering parents – and the corresponding
impact on students – up close and in person. I saw it again on my Rethink
School Tour. I heard it directly from the students, parents, teachers and
administrators I had the privilege to meet. One student at Kansas City Academy,
a private arts-focused high school put it quite bluntly: “At KCA, I feel like I
fit in. I feel like I belong. I didn’t have that at my other school.”
Every
student in America deserves a shot to experience that same thing.
And
have no doubt, this isn’t just about feelings.
It’s also about learning and achievement. It’s about putting students at
the center of everything we do. And time
and again, studies have shown more
options yield better results,
for all students.
Just
yesterday, a new study was released by the Urban Institute that looked at
Florida’s Tax Credit Scholarship Program, a program that provides low-income
parents the opportunity to send their students to the school of their choice.
Florida’s program was one of the first in the nation and today serves more than
100,000 students across the state. While previous studies have shown increased achievement
for scholarship recipients, this study also found a significantly increased college
attendance rate. Further, this study demonstrated the longer a student
participated in the choice program, the better their long-term educational
outcomes.
The
data are encouraging, but I didn’t need another research paper to know the
program works. I’ve seen living proof.
...
I
firmly believe we, as a nation, stand at a crossroads. Nearly everyone agrees: what we’re doing now is
not working, and the data are quite clear in confirming that. We’re in the middle of the pack, at best,
compared to other nations.
Middle.
Average. Those aren’t words with which I’m comfortable describing the United
States.
It’s
not the future we should feel comfortable offering anyone.
So
what do we do? What does the future hold? More funding? Does that fix the
problem? Again, the data would show otherwise, with the U.S. spending significantly
more per pupil than nearly every other country in the developed world – and without
the student achievement to go along with it.
We
can keep doing what we’ve been doing for generations, and keep expecting
different results. That is, as we know, the definition of insanity.
Or,
we can do something different. We can be bold. We can be unafraid. We can
choose to do what’s right “not because it’s easy, but because it’s hard.” Many
thought Kennedy’s words were merely a dream. Some even thought they were
dangerous. But his vision and determination made them a reality, and that’s a
reality we still reap the benefits from today. If we can put a man on the moon,
surely we can put families in charge of their own destinies.
We
can rethink school. And, I posit, we do that by embracing the future of
education as one that fully integrates “choice” into every decision we make.
Not
choice translated as vouchers, or charter schools, or private schools, or any
other specified delivery mechanism. No. Choice translated as giving every
parent in this great land more control, more of a say in their child’s future.
More choices.
The
future of choice lies in trusting and empowering parents – all parents, not just those who have the power, prestige or
financial wherewithal to make choices.
No
more “choice for me, but not for thee,” from politicians in Washington, or in
state houses.
The
future of choice lies in caring less about the word that comes before “school”
and more about the individual students that “school” seeks to serve.
The
future of choice lies in funding and supporting individual students, not
systems or buildings.
The
future of choice lies in allowing students to progress at their own pace, to take
charge of their learning, in recognizing them as the unique individuals they
are.
The
future of choice lies in embracing learning that fosters creativity, communication,
collaboration and critical thinking – traits that prepare students for further
education or the workforce, and for lifelong learning.
The
future of choice lies in recognizing America – the greatest country in the
history of mankind – can, and must, do better for our students – all of them. Because
we must do better for our
future.
Our
children are 100 percent of our future. They deserve 100 percent of our effort.
Thank you again for the opportunity to share my
thoughts with you, and I look forward to continuing our conversation.
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