Education Week - March 1, 2017 - 7

District Leaders Weigh How-and Whether-to Engage DeVos
By Denisa R. Superville
As Betsy DeVos embarks on her
role as the nation's highest-profile
education ofﬁcial, some K-12 leaders
are trying to ﬁgure out how to engage
with a new U.S. education secretary
who's an ardent proponent of school
choice and who many believe holds a
dim view of traditional public schools.
Should they invite DeVos to visit
their districts, meet with educators,
and see classrooms? Or take a more
antagonistic stance to ward off potential policies that some see as a threat
to traditional public schools?
Since DeVos squeaked through a
tumultuous confirmation process,
her debut has hit some potholes. A
small group of protesters blocked
her from entering a middle school in
the District of Columbia, temporarily disrupting her ﬁrst ofﬁcial visit
as secretary to a traditional public
school. Days later, teachers at the
same school lashed out at DeVos for
remarks she made in an interview
suggesting they were waiting to be
told what to do.
But to some K-12 leaders, keeping
doors open to DeVos is essential to
counter negative views she may hold
on public education.
"I think that's really important-
that she gets into as many public
schools as possible and exposed to
the really good things that are happening," said Thomas Gentzel, the

executive director of the National
School Boards Association, which
stayed out of the partisan ﬁght over
DeVos' conﬁrmation and whose staff
has been in touch with the Trump
administration on issues such as the
Every Student Succeeds Act.
"Obviously there are reasons to be
wary, given her focus and her background on choice issues," he said.
"But wariness is one thing. Wariness
shouldn't automatically translate
into an unwillingness to work together."

Wait-and-See Approach
A detailed K-12 agenda has yet to
emerge from the Trump administration, and many district leaders are
taking a wait-and-see approach. But
Michael Dunn, the superintendent of
NorthEast Washington Educational
Services District 101, which covers 59
districts in Washington state, wasted
no time. Shortly after DeVos' conﬁrmation, Dunn wrote to ask her to visit.
After listening to the conﬁrmation
hearing, Dunn said he was concerned
that DeVos didn't have an "overly
positive view of public education, and,
perhaps, much experience with it." He
said he's not against choice, but that
the vast majority of students attend
traditional public schools and need to
be supported.
Richard Barrera, the president
of the San Diego school board, pro-

posed-and then withdrew after negative reaction-a resolution to invite
DeVos on a "fact-ﬁnding" mission to
see the district's bright spots.
Barrera said he wanted to show
the secretary how the district works
with teachers, parents, and the community to improve outcomes for
students. The graduation rate has
climbed over the past decade to close
to 92 percent in 2016, he said, with a
91 percent graduation rate for black
students, even as the district raised
standards to align with admissions
requirements for the University of
California system. Dropout rates
declined; test scores have gone up,
he said.
But Barrera said he also wanted
to challenge what he sees as DeVos'
belief "that the way you improve
education for all students is by shifting money out of the public school
system and into privatization."
"I think it's important to call out
an agenda that we think is unproven
and dangerous," he said, adding that
the board similarly criticized the
Obama administration's Race to the
Top competitive-grant program, which
required states and districts to adopt
its agenda for school improvement.
"But not just to confront that agenda
but to offer an alternative, which is a
strong public school system rooted in
the principles of the community that
produces strong outcomes for kids."
The U.S. Department of Education

did not respond to requests for comment on the San Diego resolution or
whether the secretary has been invited to visit other districts.

Keeping an Open Mind
Some district leaders argue that
keeping an open mind on DeVos is
a better strategy for keeping them
in the loop to inﬂuence policy. One
district with a relationship with
the secretary is Michigan's Grand
Rapids system, to which her family, particularly Doug DeVos and
Maria DeVos, her brother-in-law
and sister-in-law, have donated
millions.
DeVos and her husband deepened ties with the district around
2012 when it began a major school
improvement effort, said John
Helmholdt, the district's spokesman. He credits that initiative for
rising graduation rates, new school
options, and growing enrollment.
DeVos has mentored students in
an elementary school and paid for
a leadership coach to help Superintendent Teresa Weatherall Neal.
Weatherall Neal was one of the
few superintendents to publicly
support DeVos for secretary, which
brought pushback, mostly from outside Grand Rapids, Helmholdt said.
Since becoming secretary, DeVos
asked about visiting, he said.
"The fact that the secretary of ed-

"

Wariness shouldn't
automatically translate
into an unwillingness
to work together."
THOMAS GENTZEL
Executive Director, National School
Boards Association

ucation has asked to dive in a little
deeper, I think that shows that she
is going to do her homework, and
she is going to study those best
practices, and she has a trusting
relationship with her hometown
urban school district," he said.
But the relationship hasn't
meant that the district always
agrees with the Great Lakes Education Project, which was founded
by DeVos and her husband, on
charter school transparency and
accountability, he said.
Dunn, the superintendent in
Washington state, recently learned
that DeVos couldn't accept his invitation right now.
"It's certainly an open invitation," a disappointed Dunn said.
"Anytime she would like to come,
we'd be very happy to have her."

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