Op-Ed by TC's Henig: Will Betsy DeVos Divide the School Choice Movement | Teachers College Columbia University

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Op-Ed by TC’s Henig: Will Betsy DeVos Divide the School Choice Movement?

Jeffrey Henig, Professor of Political Science and Education
Jeffrey Henig, Professor of Political Science and Education
An opinion piece by TC’s Jeffrey Henig in Education Week says Donald Trump’s nomination of Betsy DeVos for Education Secretary “gives a huge boost” to the school choice movement, to which DeVos has lent substantial financial and public support in her home state of Michigan and nationally. But it also may “foreshadow its undoing” if it ends up splitting charter school advocates from proponents of vouchers.

While the two groups have been aligned in their push for school choice, fans of public charter schools don’t necessarily support the use of publicly funded vouchers which can be used at any public or private (including religious) school. “The political alliance between them might be fraying,” Henig writes. “The election of Trump, who is a major voucher supporter, provides an opening that critics of market-based education—critics who instead advocate for traditional public schools with effective government oversight—can exploit.”

Henig, professor of political science and education, has studied and written about school choice and charter schools and was the first chair of TC’s Education Policy and Social Analysis Department. 

To read the entire piece, which is password protected, go here.

Published Wednesday, Jan 18, 2017