Our nation's commitment is to provide a quality education to every child to serve the public common good. Accordingly, we must shift the paradigm to think of education funding as investments made in individual children, not in institutions or buildings.
Betsy DeVos
Above all, I believe every child, no matter their ZIP code or their parents' jobs, deserves access to a quality education.
I do support high standards, strong accountability, and local control.
My family is the largest single contributor of soft money to the national Republican Party.
Government tends to believe in top-down solutions, and government fears of bottom-up solutions.
If confirmed, I will be a strong advocate for great public schools.
They say that if you voted for Donald Trump, you're a threat to the university community. But the real threat is silencing the First Amendment rights of people with whom you disagree.
Education broadens our horizons and enables us to confront realities we'd never before anticipated.
We've seen more and more people opt for homeschooling, including in urban areas.
It is necessary and critical for states to have flexibility to determine how to identify and improve schools.
No student should feel like there isn't a way to seek justice, and no student should feel that the scales are tipped against him or her.
The bottom line is we believe that parents are the best equipped to make choices for their children's schooling and education decisions.
We'll be examining and auditing and reviewing all of the programs of the department and really figuring out what is the core mission and how can the federal department of education really support and enhance the role of the departments in the states.
The natural instinct is to join in the chorus of conflict, to make your voice louder, your point bigger, and your position stronger. But we will not solve the significant and real problems our country faces if we cannot bring ourselves to embrace a mindset of grace.
Just as the traditional taxi system revolted against ride sharing, so too does the education establishment feel threatened by the rise of school choice.
Parents no longer believe that a one-size-fits-all model of learning meets the needs of every child. And they know other options exist, whether magnet, virtual, charter, home, faith-based, or any other combination.
I'm proud to stand beside you as a partner and support Special Olympics - an important program that promotes leadership and empowers students to be agents of change.
If you can't get cell phone service in your living room, then your particular provider is failing you. You should have the option to find a network that does work.
The bigger goal of giving all parents more choices is one that will have to be discussed and undoubtedly roundly debated, but we are going to have to continue to build the case. The momentum is there on the state level in many states. That's where the energy needs to be harnessed in a new way.
Government tends to stifle innovation, and it abhors improvisation. Any good military strategist will tell you that a battle plan rarely survives past the first engagement. After that, you have to improvise to survive and to win.
At my direction, the Department's Office for Civil Rights remains committed to investigating all claims of discrimination, bullying, and harassment against those who are most vulnerable in our schools.
There are not enough philanthropic dollars in America to fund what is currently the need in education.
When it comes to education, no solution, not even ones we like, should be dictated or run from Washington, D.C.
If you ask any of my kids today what their most important experience was in their education, they would say it was the travel and the ability to see and be in other cultures.
There isn't really any Common Core any more. Each state is able to set the standards for their state. They may elect to adopt very high standards for their students to aspire to and to work toward. And that will be up to each state.
Let's choose to hear one another out.
Where conflicts are identified, they will be resolved.
It is not fair to think that when students transit through a K-12 system that is not preparing them for beyond, that somehow we are going to wave a magic wand and things are going to be perfect for them at the higher-ed level.
Teaching is hard. It takes a lot of skill. Not everyone who tries can do it well. We need to admit that and act accordingly. We should reward and respect great teachers by paying them more, and we should stop rewarding seniority over effectiveness.
Every child deserves to attend school in a safe, supportive environment where they can learn, thrive, and grow.
Government likes committees... a lot. Committees kill all the really good ideas and generally all the really bad ideas. They produce middle-ground mush.
HBCUs are real pioneers when it comes to school choice. They are living proof that when more options are provided to students, they are afforded greater access and greater quality.
We can focus on differences that divide us, or we can choose to listen and learn from each other's experiences.
When governors such as John Engler, Mike Huckabee, and Mike Pence were driving the conversation on voluntary high standards driven by local voices, it all made sense.
We, as a society, will benefit from the interest young people show beginning at first, second, and third grades. As a result, there's great promise in the future.
The faculty, from adjunct professors to deans, tell you what to do, what to say, and more ominously, what to think.
I support accountability.
The older generations are too wedded to political parties, too wedded to romantic memories of what education was like when they were kids, and too wedded to the status quo group that clings to power.
Opening a complaint for investigation in no way implies that the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has made a determination about the merits of the complaint.
No child's dream should be limited by the quality, or lack thereof, of the education they receive.
When we had segregated schools and when we had a time when, you know, girls weren't allowed to have the same kind of sports teams - I mean, there have been important inflection points for the federal government to get involved in some of the areas around protecting students and ensuring safe environments for them - there is a role to play.
I need to stress that I could not be more supportive of great teachers and great teaching, no matter what kind of delivery vehicle they are teaching through. We have to support great teachers. They just have to be freed up to do what they do best.
Federal law must be followed where federal dollars are in play.
Social justice and economics are both issues to me.
It shouldn't matter what type of school a student attends, so long as the school is the right fit for that student.
It could be easy to get frustrated or discouraged when it comes to educating students with disabilities. But that's because there are too often artificial barriers and roadblocks that limit your ability to focus on meeting their individual needs.
My job isn't to win popularity contests.
Dick and I became increasingly committed to helping other parents - parents from low-income families in particular.
I can assure you I have never made decisions on my mother's behalf on her foundation's board.
Homeschooling represents another perfectly valid educational option.
