Empowering Students through School Choice, with Betsy DeVos

Uncommon Knowledge

Hoover Institution

Politics, History, News, News:politics, Science

4.8 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 3 June 2019

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Recorded on May 15, 2019. What’s wrong with public education in the United States? Betsy DeVos, US secretary of education, analyzes the role of government in the US education system and the changes she’s making to the Department of Education. She discusses her proposal to overhaul the federal education system by rolling back government overreach from the previous administration. She argues that states and parents need to be empowered to make better informed and flexible decisions for where students attend schools. Her plan is to offer states the opportunity to enroll in an optional tax-credit program that would enable more parents to choose where their children go to school, including charter schools. Secretary DeVos briefly touches on Title IX. She argues that, even though one sexual assault on a college campus is too many, better protections need to be put into place for the accused to be considered innocent until proven guilty. Peter Robinson and Secretary DeVos also discuss the trials of working in her current position and her dedication to serving the parents and students of the United States.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Uncommon Knowledge.
0:09.6	I'm Peter Robinson.
0:11.0	Since 2017 Betsy Devoss has served as the 11th Secretary of Education.
0:16.5	A native of Michigan, she has served as chairwoman of the Michigan Republican Party.
0:21.2	She spent many years as a philanthropist and activist in the school choice movement.
0:25.0	She supported charter schools in Detroit and served on the boards of the Foundation for Excellence in Education
0:31.0	and the Alliance for School Choice.
0:34.0	Secretary DeVos, welcome.
0:35.6	Thank you, Peter.
0:37.1	The Department of Education, established by President Carter in 1979, 4,000 employees, a budget, I think the 2020 budget has been announced
0:48.3	and it's coming, it's in the range of 70 billion?
0:51.2	That's, yes, it depends on the day, but it's right in that range.
0:54.4	It's serious money even by the standards of the federal government.
0:57.8	And according to a statement on the department's own website, its principal duties are, quote,
1:02.1	to establish policy for, administer, and coordinate most
1:05.8	federal assistance to education, collect data on U.S. schools, and enforce federal educational
1:12.2	laws regarding privacy and civil rights. and
1:14.0	civil rights,
1:15.0	close quote. Okay, now here's the,
1:18.0	this is almost an obligatory question.
1:20.0	You spent your life before going to Washington as an activist in conservative politics.
1:27.0	A lot of conservatives.
	...

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