You compared options, and made an informed decision. When you chose to attend Harvard, did anyone suggest you were against public universities? No, you and your family sat down and figured out which education environment would be the best fit for you. That’s why we should fight less about the word that comes before “school.” I suspect all of you here at Harvard, a private school, will take your education and contribute to the public good. The definition of public education should be to educate the public. She used her Ivy League setting to make the case that private provision need not clash with notions of public good: Isn’t “the public” made up of students and parents? Isn’t “public money” really their money-the taxpayer’s money? And doesn’t every school aim to serve the public good? A school that prepares its students to lead successful lives is a benefit to all of us. But the definitions we have traditionally worked from have become tools that divide us. I’m not for any type of school over another. Being for equal access and opportunity-being for choice-is not being against anything. They did so by trying to paint an indelible line, forcing a false dichotomy: if you support giving parents any option-any say-you must therefore be diametrically opposed to public schools, public school teachers and public school students. have done a mighty fine job setting the scene for that house of horrors in the press. While the speech was far from perfect (it could’ve done without the whole food truck analogy), it’s worth highlighting four passages which deserve particular notice for their themes and welcome tenor.ĭeVos pushed back on those who insist that support for school choice is necessarily an “attack” on public education and argued that choice can be wholly consonant with the historic mission of public education:ĭefenders of the “system”. This was noteworthy because DeVos has not always been an especially effective advocate for her cause, tending to lean on unfortunate talking points and failing to explain the practical, intuitive case for choice as part of a broader educational vision. She articulated points that aren’t made often or forcefully enough. She delivered a strong speech (a fact easily lost amidst the reflexive caterwauling). Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos visited Harvard University to speak on school choice.
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