Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos visits Lexington

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) — The U.S. Secretary of Education made a visit to Lexington with Governor Matt Bevin to host an “Education Freedom” roundtable, discussing school choice and federal tax credit scholarships.

The roundtable was held at the Bluegrass Community & Technical College.

Betsy Devos was there to tout her department’s Education Freedom Scholarship proposal.

The federal tax credit scholarship program could be used at private schools and would allow tax breaks for donations to scholarships for vocational training, apprenticeships, and dual and concurrent enrollment.

Supporters of it say the program would give families more options to choose the right school for them.

When asked about critics who say the proposal will take money away from public schools, DeVos had this to say:

“Well the reality is it actually meets the needs of kids who don’t fit in where they’ve been assigned,” says DeVos. “And in every state where students have more choices and more opportunities the actual results in the traditional public schools get better right along with the students who’ve gone to a school of their choice.”

Attending the roundtable were families, educators, and local elected leaders but no representatives from any of the state’s public school districts.

When asked why, this was Bevin and DeVos’ response:

“Every single person who sat around this table cares about the children not about funding, not about territory, not about power, not about politics – they care about parents and they care about students and it was a broad representation of people who care about those things,” says Bevin.

“We’re really focused on doing what’s right for kids and individual kids knowing that everyone is special and unique,” says DeVos.

DeVos’ visit comes after an unsuccessful legislative session for school-choice supporters.

A state-level scholarship tax credit program died in the House and charter school funding wasn’t even taken up this session.

DeVos and Bevin are proponents of charter schools.

She encouraged Bevin to keep pushing for it.

“I know you’ve had a few frustrations I just want to encourage you to keep at it and keep fighting,” said Secretary DeVos.

Her visit signals school-choice supporters are looking to the federal government to get their efforts off the ground.

DeVos says President Trump is “very, very supportive” of her department’s proposal.

Here is the Kentucky Education Association’s statement on being excluded from the rountable discussion:

“Students, parents and educators in Kentucky who have seen school budgets and programs gutted under the leadership of Matt Bevin could face no starker a reality than handing the future of public education over to he and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. Today’s gathering of education “reformers” was nothing more than a collection of big donors who want to gut public school budgets in favor of for-profit voucher and charter school funding.

It’s ironic that this group gathered at the publicly-funded Bluegrass Community & Technical College because Bevin, DeVos and their fellow anti-public education advocates refused to hear from any public-school stakeholders who might dare to disagree with their rush to privatize public education. Kentucky legislators already dismissed a similar Bevin-supported proposal in its last session that’s similar to DeVos’ proposed federal program to give $5 billion in tax breaks to the wealthy in order to fund vouchers and charter schools and further gut public education.

Today’s meeting was nothing more than a photo-op for a failed governor and a failed education secretary who refuse to listen to those who may disagree with their proposals. In November, Kentucky voters can decide if they want two individuals like Bevin and DeVos who never attended public school to make policy for their children’s futures, or do they want local educators, school board members, superintendents and parents looking out for what’s best for their neighborhood schools.”

Democratic state lawmakers in Fayette County also issued a statement about being excluded from the roundtable discussion:

“It is ironic that U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is in Lexington today with Governor Matt Bevin for a roundtable discussion and none of the Fayette County Legislative Delegation appears to have been invited. It isn’t surprising, however, considering our governor consistently excludes key officials, stakeholders and constituent groups in talks about important areas of education like funding, teacher training and pension reform. In addition, any meeting with Secretary DeVos must include discussions about why she so strongly supports educational choice and how that threatens public education across the nation.”

– Senator Reginald Thomas

– Rep. George Brown Jr.

– Rep. Kelly Flood

– Rep. Cherlynn Stevenson

– Rep. Susan Westrom