Statement on Confirmation of Betsy DeVos as U.S. Secretary of Education

It is gratifying to see Betsy DeVos confirmed as the next U.S. Secretary of Education. This is not because the federal government should attempt to push school choice — it should not, except in the District of Columbia and for families connected to the military — but because the opposition to now‐​Secretary DeVos was so unfair to her, and to the research on educational freedom. The reality is that research indicates charter schooling works in Michigan, DeVos’s home state, and specifically in Detroit. It shows that families of students with disabilities, rather than somehow being victimized by school choice, are empowered and immensely satisfied with it. And logic and evidence show that private school choice, rather than imposing ideas on people, frees them to get what they want for their children without forcing it on others.


It is also gratifying to see DeVos approved because she stated repeatedly in her confirmation hearing that education decisions should be left to state and local governments. Constitutionally, that has things absolutely right: the Constitution gives Washington no authority to govern or “oversee” American education, as Sen. Patty Murray (D‑WA) put it, which means such rights remain with the states, or with the people. And 50‐​plus years of increasingly intrusive federal meddling in education, with ultimately no visible academic improvement to show for it, brilliantly illustrates the wisdom of that decision.


Now let us hope that the Trump administration sticks to the constitutionally‐​constrained federal role — even on school choice — that Secretary DeVos has repeatedly endorsed.