Despite feeling the sting of criticism in the “mainstream media,” U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos unleashed a critique of her own against the Obama administration Thursday for spending money on a failed effort to turn around the nation’s schools.
“The previous administration spent seven billion of your dollars on ‘School Improvement Grants,’ thinking they could demonstrate that money alone would solve the problem,” DeVos said. “Yet their own report, issued as they walked out the door, showed that it had zero impact on student outcomes and performance.
“They tested their model, and it failed — miserably,” DeVos said.
DeVos made her remarks Thursday in National Harbor, Md., at the Conservative Political Action Conference, an initiative of the American Conservative Union.
As has been her practice since she was confirmed as secretary of education this year, DeVos did not take questions from the media.
DeVos used her brief speech at CPAC to tout the benefits of school choice and to urge conservative college students to fight efforts to squelch their right to free speech.
She casted herself as an independent voice who is not interested in winning the affection of critics or those interested in upholding the status quo.
