How Betsy DeVos' Education Plan Is at Odds with Christian Values

EDUCATION IS A fundamental good and a fundamental human right. It is basic to determining social justice. Betsy DeVos, the new Secretary of Education under President Trump, has championed three major policies that further the oppression of children of color, children with special needs, and children who live in poverty. As a matter of faith, Christians should call to account those who promote injustice—especially from positions of power. “Woe to those who make unjust laws,” railed the prophet Isaiah, “to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people.”

In the debate between egalitarian and libertarian approaches to education policy, DeVos is an extreme libertarian. She’s a proponent of privatizing education and letting market forces and philanthropy sort out any inequalities. Privatized education favors children of the dominant culture and the financially elite. It drives public funding toward specialized schools and programs, such as charter schools, and away from regular public schools. DeVos claims that this promotes individual freedom and allows Christian schools to be better supported. In reality, it promotes an unfair distribution of educational resources across the few while disadvantaging the many. Michigan, where DeVos has long been active, leads the country in for-profit charter schools, while student performance has plummeted.

DeVos has indicated that she might remove federal regulations that guarantee a “free and appropriate education” for children with special needs. She argues that these protections should be regulated at the state level, providing local governments with more “freedom of choice.” Practically speaking, this would increase the chances that children will be denied access to needed resources at local levels and create unfair distribution of assets. Strong federal regulations hold local education systems accountable to the children they are to educate. Without these protections, the most vulnerable children in our communities suffer.

DeVos advocates voucher programs and “school-choice” legislation that provide tax incentives for parents to send children to non-public schools. However, these programs undercut access to quality education for the majority. Voucher programs siphon funds away from public education and increase the gap between high-performing and low-performing schools. Children without strong parental support or who have disabilities or behavioral issues are removed from private schools, despite their vouchers, or are never accepted in the first place because private schools have little incentive to educate these students. Thus the highest achieving students benefit most from attending the high-performing schools, leaving the children most in need in poorer quality schools with fewer resources.

DeVos displays a gross ignorance of the systemic oppression of children of color, the obstacles of families who grow up in poverty, and the needs of children who are atypical in development. The moral duty of the education secretary is to make decisions that best serve all children.

Educational opportunity should be equal with respect to existing social structures. Equal opportunity means that resources are available and appropriate for a child’s unique gifts, needs, abilities, and experiences. Children who are underserved, over-burdened, or unsafe in their communities must be given access to opportunities that allow them to reach their potential as much as children who are well-resourced, able-bodied, and otherwise privileged.

Models such as those DeVos manufactured in Michigan—structured to increase private wealth above all else and favoring certain people’s children over others—are not the way forward, nor worthy of Christian support.

The goal of education reform should not be to remove a few children from failing schools, but to create opportunity for every child. All children should be able to learn and develop into well-functioning members of society.