ABSTRACT
In 2017, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, a billionaire supporter of school choice policies long before President Trump nominated her to his cabinet, spoke at the National Association of Public Charter Schools annual meeting. She stated that it was time to stop distinguishing schools by their sector, and instead, embrace public, private, and other models in terms of what families decide is most valuable through their selection of schools. Secretary DeVos argued, “I suggest we focus less on what word comes before ‘school’—whether it be traditional, charter, virtual, magnet, home, parochial, private or any approach yet to be developed—and focus instead on the individuals they are intended to serve. We need to get away from our orientation around buildings or systems or schools and shift our focus to individual students” (DeVos, 2017).
