Education Week - March 8, 2017 - 15

TRANSITION UPDATE: WASHINGTON

U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos
called Historically Black Colleges and
Universities "pioneers of school choice" in
a statement after meeting with the leaders
of some of those institutions at the White
House last week-and set off a socialmedia firestorm.
"HBCUs are real pioneers when it
comes to school choice," DeVos said after
the session that she and President Donald Trump held with dozens of college
presidents and chancellors of HBCUs.
"They are living proof that when more
options are provided to students, they are
afforded greater access and greater quality. Their success has shown that more
options help students flourish."
Those sentiments ignited social-media
platforms, with numerous critics saying on
Twitter that HBCUs were set up primarily
because, as a result of segregation, many
black students in the South and elsewhere
didn't have a choice about where they went
to school. In many cases, they were barred
from attending public universities for white students.
A department official explained that DeVos' remarks were part
of a brief statement and that she understands and respects that
HBCUs were founded in the context of segregation. DeVos' statement also said she'd be looking to HBCUs for advice in "addressing the current inequities we face in education."
In a speech Feb. 28 to HBCU officials and advocates at the
Library of Congress, a day after the White House meeting, DeVos
emphasized that HBCUs grew out of educational segregation.
She highlighted the story of Mary McLeod Bethune, who founded
what became Bethune-Cookman University, saying Bethune
recognized that traditional schools "systemically failed to provide
African-Americans access to a quality education-or, sadly, more
often to any education at all," according to prepared remarks.
"Bucking that status quo and providing an alternative option to
students denied the right to attend a quality school is the legacy
of HBCUs," DeVos' prepared remarks say. "But your history was
born, not out of mere choice, but out of necessity, in the face of racism, and in the aftermath of the Civil War."
ALYSON KLEIN
-

Education Secretary's Opponents Misfire
In Squawk Over 'No Free Lunch' Comment
DeVos' critics also seized on a comment she made at the Conservative Political Action Conference Feb. 23 that she is "perhaps the
first person to tell Bernie Sanders to his face that there's no such
thing as a free lunch."
That one-line jab at the Vermont senator-who touted free public-college tuition for all as a Democratic candidate for president
in 2016-morphed into false claims that DeVos had suggested
eliminating free lunches in the National School Lunch Program
as part of her speech.
Critics were quick to point out that millions of U.S. public
school students actually do receive free lunches, and that many
rely on those subsidized meals to make up for a deficit of nutrition at home.
But many of the criticisms of what DeVos supposedly said appear to have been based on inaccurate news reports.
"DeVos Could End Nutrition Program for Poor Kids," asserted a headline in the International Business Times, which
said "DeVos, a staunch opponent of public schools, is taking
over the nation's free-lunch program that provides nutrition
to low-income students." That story was picked up by Yahoo!
with the headline, "DeVos Questions If Schools Should Provide Free Lunch."
Neither report is true.
For one thing, DeVos never mentioned school lunches at CPAC.
For another, the National School Lunch Program and the National
School Breakfast Program are under the authority of the U.S.
Department of Agriculture, not the Department of Education.
Trump has nominated former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue to be
his agriculture secretary.
It is true that the programs have faced scrutiny from lawmakers in recent years. It is true that some policy proposals may have

Evan Vucci/AP

DeVos Slammed for
Calling HBCUs Choice
'Pioneers'

restricted the ability of some high-poverty schools to participate in
a program that allows them to provide free lunches to all students
with less red tape. And it is true that those discussions will likely
continue in the future. But it's not true that DeVos will be at the
center of those decisions.
Of course, DeVos was using an aphorism that dates back
decades, at least, to speak more broadly about her approach
to government, not meals. And it's worth debating how that
broader view colors her approach to education policy. After all,
more than half of America's students now qualify for free and
reduced-price meals, a common marker of poverty, and schools
will be stretched to meet their needs both inside and outside
the classroom.
But it's also important to be accurate.
EVIE BLAD

U.S. Secretary of
Education Secretary
Betsy DeVos waits for
the arrival of
President Donald
Trump at a meeting of
the National Governors
Association last week
at the White House.

Senate Measure Introduced to Overturn
Obama-Era ESSA Rules on Accountability
A measure to block the Obama administration's regulations
governing accountability under the Every Student Succeeds Act
was introduced last week by Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., the
chairman of the Senate education committee, and was pending
at week's end. The House of Representatives approved a similar
measure last month.
The measures are intended to end regulations finalized late
last year that govern state plans and issues ranging from testing opt-outs to school turnarounds. In addition, not long after
Trump was inaugurated in January, his administration paused
the regulations.
If the Senate passes Alexander's resolution, and Trump
gives the thumbs-up, the Obama-era rules for accountability
and state plans would have no force, an alarming prospect for
Democrats in Congress and civil rights advocates, who say
those regulations include crucial protections for disadvantaged
students. Congressional Republicans and some school groups,
however, have supported the move, arguing that state K-12
leaders and schools need more flexibility and that the Education Department can still provide nonregulatory guidance and
technical assistance to states seeking more clarity or other help
with accountability provisions of the law.
DeVos hasn't expressed a clear opinion about the regulations.
But she did signal to states that they should consider themselves
to be in the driver's seat as they finalize their plans for ESSA.
If Congress overturns these rules, the Education Department could take another crack at developing accountability
rules for ESSA, but legally under the CRA it couldn't be
substantially similar to what the Obama administration developed. What that means exactly is unclear, since there's no
precedent for Congress overturning such rules for the main
federal K-12 law.
ANDREW UJIFUSA
-

Visit the POLITICS K12 blog, which tracks news and trends
on this issue. www.edweek.org/blogs

EDUCATION WEEK | March 8, 2017 | www.edweek.org | 15

http://www.edweek.org/blogs http://www.edweek.org

Education Week - March 8, 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Education Week - March 8, 2017