In the past four years, Secretary DeVos worked hard to help America’s students through school choice programs. Through philanthropy and education reform, DeVos has been able to help thousands of America’s families with access to better schools.
Even with constant criticism, the education secretary continued to persevere in her quest for every state to have school choice. She said that these programs provided a helping hand to students who wanted to choose where to go to school, particularly when from lower-income neighborhoods. The problem of failing schools has led many students to feel jaded about learning in schools, particularly when standardized testing has taken over the curriculum.
DeVos talked with reporter Leslie Stahl on CBS’ “60 Minutes” in 2018. In just a year of being in office, DeVos had expanded these programs from 17 states to all 50 states by the end of her term.
Even though DeVos has resigned, the former education secretary said that it was a dream of hers to become 11th US Education Secretary. She had been working towards her political career ever since the 1970s, when she graduated Calvin College and joined the campaign for Gerald R. Ford.
Only a few years later would the first education secretary and first female secretary be appointed in 1979. While it was clear that education was becoming more and more important, DeVos also saw that there were ways to help students with different school options in the 1990s.
She co-founded an aviation charter school with her husband Dick DeVos in west Michigan. The new school trained high school students to become pilots and flight operators on the grounds of the Grand Rapids airport.
Throughout her term, she focused on school choice and helping students get into better schools, particularly when they were from lower income school zones with failing schools. In her “60 Minutes” interview, Stahl asked DeVos why educational choice was necessary and whether the programs were successful.
Since the programs are designed to help underprivileged students in low income school zones, school choice has been very effective. The programs help thousands of families every year and give access to private schools and magnet programs that weren’t available to these students before.
In addition to her work with educational choice, DeVos also has also worked with policymakers and state legislatures to make campuses safer with the campus guardian program.
As COVID-19 changed school dynamics and safety policies again, she implemented new distance learning regulations to help students learn from home.
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