Remember those 11 competitive-grant priorities that U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos sketched out last month? In case you forgot: Expanding school choice and rewarding applicants that want to focus on STEM were on her list.
More than 1,000 people and organizations had some thoughts for DeVos and her team when it comes to these priorities, which the department will use to help decide who gets hundreds of millions of dollars in competitive grants.
DeVos had pitched giving applicants a leg-up in applying for the funds if they focus on school choice, innovation, citizenship, meeting the needs of children with disabilities, STEM, literacy, effective instruction, improving school climate, expanding economic opportunity, or helping military-connected students. She gave the education community thirty days to offer formal feedback.
She got nearly 1,500 comments from the education field. We read them, well, okay, fine, some of them, so you don’t have to.
Below are some comments from various groups.
National Coalition for Public Education
The coaliton, which is made up of 50 organizations, including both national teachers’ unions, AASA: The School Superintendents Association, the National PTA, disability rights groups, the NAACP, and others, is not at all happy with the department’s plan to give grant applications a leg-up if they focus on school choice.
“The Department should not reward states for adopting voucher programs that do not serve all students, fail to improve academic achievement, undermine public education funding, harm religious freedom and lack critical accountability for taxpayers,” the groups wrote.
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Source: Education Week Politics K-12