Coalition Letter | Coalition Sends Letter to Chairman Alexander Supporting Nomination of Betsy DeVos to be Secretary of Education

MacIver Institute, Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, School Choice Wisconsin, Hispanics for School Choice, Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, and Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce praise DeVos’ commitment to students, families

 

January 13, 2017 – Milwaukee, WI – Today, a coalition of Wisconsin-based organizations sent a letter to United States Senator Lamar Alexander, Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, supporting the nomination of Betsy DeVos to be Secretary of Education in President Donald Trump’s administration.

Citing her decades-long commitment to education reform, the coalition believes that she will continue her advocacy for children and families and her approach to national education policy will rightly empower states and local communities.

From the letter:

“We are also excited that Mrs. DeVos believes that education policy should be driven by parents and experts at the local level, not a one-size-fits-all dictate handed down from unelected federal bureaucrats on high. We need a federal education department that recognizes the importance of local control – an idea that might work in California might not work in Wisconsin – and we believe Mrs. DeVos will allow Wisconsinites to figure out how to best educate our children and prepare them to succeed in the global economy.

We believe Mrs. DeVos is an outstanding pick by President-elect Trump for Education Secretary. We ask that the United States Senate confirm Mrs. DeVos in a timely fashion so that she can get to the task at hand – turning around our nation’s education system – and give all of our children an opportunity for success and a better future.”

The entire letter is available for download here. The full text is below.

The Honorable Lamar Alexander, Chairman
U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions
428 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510

Dear Senator Alexander,

We write today to support President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of Betsy DeVos as the
next Secretary of Education.

As you know, Wisconsin is home to the nation’s oldest school choice program. We have
witnessed firsthand here the need for dramatic reform of a status-quo education system and we
can testify to the incredible impact empowering parents can have on a child’s education and
their future.

Mrs. DeVos has worked with local advocates for education reform in Wisconsin for decades to
give parents a greater say in the education of their children. Mrs. DeVos has been a relentless
fighter for all of our children, regardless of their skin color, where they live, their economic status
or what type of school they attend.

Simply put, Mrs. DeVos has pushed to make the education ecosystem better in Wisconsin so
every child has a chance to be successful in school and every child has a chance to pursue
their dream after graduation. We believe she is the right choice to reform our nation’s education
system.

Clearly, our nation needs Mrs. DeVos’ leadership and educational vision right now. According to
the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress, less than forty-five percent of our fourth
graders are proficient in reading and mathematics. Our lowest-achieving students are
performing worse than ever and only about a third of our high school seniors are ready for
college math and reading classes. The news is not much better on the international level. The
latest Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) results show lower math scores for
American students and flat scores in science and reading compared to students from across the
globe. Our PISA performance in math now ranks the United States near the bottom among the
thirty-five industrialized nations in the world. This is unacceptable.

We are also excited that Mrs. DeVos believes that education policy should be driven by parents
and experts at the local level, not a one-size-fits-all dictate handed down from unelected federal
bureaucrats on high. We need a federal education department that recognizes the importance
of local control – an idea that might work in California might not work in Wisconsin – and we
believe Mrs. DeVos will allow Wisconsinites to figure out how to best educate our children and
prepare them to succeed in the global economy.

We believe Mrs. DeVos is an outstanding pick by President-elect Trump for Education
Secretary. We ask that the United States Senate confirm Mrs. DeVos in a timely fashion so that
she can get to the task at hand – turning around our nation’s education system – and give all of
our children an opportunity for success and a better future.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Brett Healy
President
The John K. MacIver Institute for Public Policy

Jim Bender
President
School Choice Wisconsin

Kurt Bauer
President/CEO
Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce

Richard Esenberg
President & General Counsel
Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty

Jason Crye
Executive Director
Hispanics For School Choice

Tim Sheehy
President
Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce

 

 

 

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