Education Week - January 13, 2021 - 15

Need copies of
Education Week?

Then-U.S. Secretary of
Education Betsy DeVos testifies
at a House appropriations
subcommittee budget hearing
last February in Washington.

Full-color and black-and-white reprints
of Education Week articles are available
for purchase. Each custom-designed
reprint is formatted with our
Education Week logo and printed
on quality paper!

Betsy DeVos Resigns
A Day After Pro-Trump
Mob Storms U.S. Capitol

Tensions With the President
DeVos largely avoided public conflict
with the president, but the two have
had some tension during her tenure.
In 2019, she sat in the hottest of hot
seats when a Congressional committee sharply questioned her over a
Trump administration proposal to cut
$17.6 million in federal funding for the
Special Olympics, part of an overall
administration plan to lower budgets
across agencies.
After she spent hours defending
him, Trump later said he had " overridden " officials in his administration and
stated that the Special Olympics would

Vol. 39 ٚIssue
30 ٚApril
29, 2020

edweek.org

ing the Coron
avirus

WHATEVE
R IT TAKE
ES
S: The first
few weeks
Amy Pollin
Jovelle Tamayo
of teaching
gton, a kinde
for Educatio
from home
n rgarten
n Week
have been
teacher in Rent
They have
brutal for many
on, Wash. Teac
to rework th
teachers, like
their lessons.
hers are grapp
They 're inund
for students
ling with unfam
ated with emai
and theirr ffamil
iliar technologi
ls, texts, and
ies, while juggl
es.
calls. They
ing the need
're trying to
s of their own
" be there "
children. They
're maxed out.
l Page

KNOCK OUT IN WHITE
10

This
Week's
News

Remembering
Flint's
First Black
Superinten
dent
Page 5

Grading
During the
Pandemic?
It's
A Tough Call
Page 6

To inspire and empower.

Pandemic a
High-Stakes
Test for Devo
s'
Leadership

The
Disparities
In Remote
Learning

Page 8

Page 12

13, 2020
Vol. 39 ٚIssue 32 ٚMay

Students Are
Going Miss
ing
,QD6KLɝ7
R
Remote Learn
ing

edweek.org

Schools Strug
gle
To Meet Risin
g
Demand for
Food

Page 14

Page 15

&2// $36(

Coronavirus Will Make
ls
Inequalities in Public Schoo
Even Worse l Page 12

TEXT CAN GO

On The Drawing or
Outside. Flex
Week

be funded. That about-face prompted
Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., to ask in a
statement, " Can someone pull Betsy
from under the bus? "
Not long before Trump formally accepted the Republican Party's presidential nomination in 2016, DeVos,
a billionaire political donor, said she
wasn't prepared to back him.
" There have clearly been a lot of
things that have been said that give me
serious pause for thought. But on the
other hand, when I consider the alternative, that is not attractive either, " she
told the Detroit News.
She later joined the administration
after Trump selected Vice President
Mike Pence, a school choice advocate,
as his running mate.
DeVos' signature issue, school
choice, became a major talking point
for Trump on the 2020 campaign trail.
And despite their previous differences
and her divisive public profile, she appeared at some campaign events and
was part of his aggressive push to reopen schools amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
DeVos stopped short of directly criticizing Trump following another major
scandal. In 2017, Trump said there were
" very fine people on both sides " of a
conflict at a white supremacist gathering in Charlottesville, Va., where a
counter-protester died when a demonstrator intentionally hit her with a car.
" The views of white nationalists,
neo-Nazis and other racist bigots are
totally abhorrent to the American
ideal, " DeVos wrote in a letter to Education Department employees that
was silent on Trump's comments.
" We all have a role to play in rejecting views that pit one group of people
against another. Such views are cowardly, hateful, and just plain wrong. "
During the violence on Capitol Hill
last week, DeVos' former chief of staff,
Josh Venable, called on Trump's Cabinet to prepare to invoke the U.S. Constitution's 25th Amendment, which
could lead to the president's removal
from office.

EXHAUST
Teaching Dur ED & GRIEVING

Taylor Callery for Education

U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy
DeVos' resignation announcement
Jan. 7 came just a day after a violent
insurrection in Washington that attempted to stop Congress' certification
of President-elect Joe Biden's victory.
Her departure from President Donald Trump's administration followed
a string of resignations from the upper
ranks of the executive branch after the
violence at the U.S. Capitol, including
another Cabinet official, Secretary of
Transportation Elaine Chao.
In a letter to Trump announcing her
resignation, effective Jan. 8, DeVos
said the president that he was culpable for the violence at the Capitol,
telling him that " there is no mistaking
the impact your rhetoric had on the
situation " and called his actions " the
inflection point for me. "
" We should be highlighting and
celebrating your Administration's
many accomplishments on behalf of
the American people, " DeVos told
Trump in the letter. " Instead, we are
left to clean up the mess caused by
violent protestors overrunning the U.S.
Capitol in an attempt to undermine
the people's business. "
DeVos also highlighted her work as
education secretary, saying among
other things that " we have sparked a
national conversation about putting
parents and students in charge of
education. " But she stressed that " impressionable children are watching all
of this, and they are learning from us.
I believe we each have a moral obligation to exercise good judgment and
model the behavior we hope they
would emulate. "
Deputy Secretary of Education Mick
Zais will replace DeVos and serve as
acting secretary of education, a U.S.
Department of Education spokeswoman said.
Late on Jan. 6, DeVos issued a statement denouncing the riot on Capitol
Hill that occurred earlier that day,

declaring that an " angry mob " must
not be allowed to halt the democratic
process.
" The eyes of America's children
and students-the rising generation
who will inherit the republic we leave
them-are watching what is unfolding
in Washington today, " DeVos said in
the statement. " We must set an example for them, and we must teach them
the solemn obligations and duties that
come with the title 'American.' "
DeVos took over as the head of the
Education Department in February
2017, and is one of Trump's longestserving and most controversial cabinet members. Indeed, she is one of a
handful of original cabinet members
in a Trump administration known for
high turnover in key roles.
DeVos has frequently criticized
teachers' unions, arguing that they
preserve the status quo in struggling
schools. In response to her resignation, American Federation of Teachers
President Randi Weingarten issued a
two-word statement Thursday night:
" Good riddance. "
Resigning 13 days before the end of
Trump's term " does nothing to erase
the harm " DeVos has done " to this
country's students, their families and
educators, " National Education Association President Becky Pringle said in
a statement.

and empo
wer.

KNOCK OU
T IN
To inspire

and emp

ower.

WS
OTHER NEWS

WHITE

Vol. 39 ٚIssue
33 ٚJune
3, 2020

Floo
a Flood
'Summer Melt' Could Be
QV 6
3ODQV
3
3ODQ
$V6HQLRUV6KLɝ&ROOHJH3ODQV
tudeents'
Students'
eet St
Schools Struggle to Meet
eeds 8
Needs
lth N
Mounting Mental-Health
ng
uling
Right-to-Education Ruling
16
World
Jolts Advocacy

edweek.org

Extraordinar
y Commence
ment
|

7KH\VDLGJRR
GE\HDEUXSWO\
2QFHLQDOL
Traditional
graduation
IHWLPHHYHQWV
rituals gave
OLNHWKHLUVHQ
RIKLJKVFKRR
way to soci
LRUSURPVZH
O%XWWKH&ODV
ally distanced
UHFDOOHGRȣ
VRIZDV
ways to mak
or virtual cele
UHVLOLHQWDQG
e the mom
brations of
ent meaning
VRZHUHWKHLU
the end
ful and mem
HGXFDWRUVȤ
orable. l See
QGLQJQHZ
related story,
Page
8

TEXT CAN

On The Dra GO
win
Outside. Flexg or

Yasmine
Protho, 18,
graduated
from Chatta
hoochee
County
High School
in Cusset
a, Ga.,
last month
. Her ceremo
ny
included
just nine
other
classmates
and a limited
number of
family memb
ers.

n/AP

By Andrew Ujifusa
& Evie Blad

To inspire

IN THIS ISSUE
QUALITY
COUNTS
2020

School
Finance

he COVID
-19 pandemic
has school
for ways to
leaders search
keep the fiscal
ing
ship afloat
revenues, unexp
amid plumm
pected
ed costs, and
eting
uncertainty.
state and local
This second
ond of three
budget
offers lesson
Quality Count
s from st
s 2020 install
economic downt
capturing distric past
ments
urns and survey
t-levell views
data
of the curren
rankings and
t
state-by-state
crisis,
along with
state grades
indicators that
national
on a range
provide contex
of school financ
t for up-to-the-m
e
inutee planni
ng
ng.
g

Brynn Anderso

Graeme Sloan/Education Week

Reprints & PDFs

SEE SPECIA
AL
L SECTIO
N:

Education
Finance Take
s Center Stage
Weatherin
l Page 18
g a Fiscal Fires
torm l 18
As Economi
omic
ic Downturn
ntu Take
Nation Gets
T k s Hold
Hold,
Gets a 'C
'C'
C' on Scho
ol Fi
Finance l 20

(301) 280-3100 | reprints@educationweek.org

EDUCATION WEEK | January 13, 2021 | www.edweek.org | 15

http://www.edweek.org http://www.edweek.org http://www.edweek.org http://www.edweek.org

Education Week - January 13, 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Education Week - January 13, 2021