Thread by @PoliticsK12

.@BetsyDeVosED is speaking at a little after 9 a.m. today with @KellyannePolls about her proposal to create federal tax credits to promote "education freedom." You can watch live here @AEIeducation: aei.org/events/a-conve…

Note:

Betsy DeVos' Education Freedom Scholarships would be administered by the Treasury Department. As far as we can tell, neither the House nor Senate appropriations bills to fund Treasury for the upcoming fiscal year mention funds related to the proposed Freedom Scholarships.

Betsy DeVos now speaking @AEIeducation.

She stresses the plan would be based on "voluntary contributions."

"The key element in the proposal is freedom," DeVos says. States would be free to participate, she says, but over time, pressure would grow on states to join.

DeVos name-checks "A Nation at Risks" and cites mediocre performance on international tests as a reality we shouldn't ignore.

The word she keeps repeating? Freedom.

She also says she's "dumbfounded" that conservative education reformers oppose Education Freedom Scholarships.

The proposal doesn't grow the government at all, not even a "tiny bit," DeVos said, and is highly efficient.

DeVos then stresses Education Freedom Scholarships provide what African-American and Hispanic parents in particular are looking for.

"Union bosses" don't put kids and their futures first, Betsy DeVos says.

She stresses the West Virginia strike in 2018 kept kids out of school for a significant length of time, while the strike in that state this year was triggered by a proposal to allow charter schools.

If you like your child's school, you can stay put, Betsy DeVos says. But education freedom doesn't mean forcing choices on people.

Talking with @rickhess99, @BetsyDeVosED her proposal is in part a way to jump-start states that haven't yet taken advantage of ideas to expand educational freedom.

As an example, she floats the idea of a "micro-school" (a school within a school) to serve students' needs.

.@KellyannePolls says state choice programs have been "wildly successful" and says they prove that, "If you build it, they will come."

"This is something that's been a priority for this president," Conway adds.

.@KellyannePolls takes a shot at @CoryBooker, saying how disappointed she is that he's supported school choice but has flip-flopped.

Every president since charter schools were created has supported charter schools, @BetsyDeVosED notes.

Education Freedom Scholarships would be a major boost to Florida, for example, @BetsyDeVosED says.

.@KellyannePolls says the money supporting school choice is being repurposed and not really saved per se. "We're not wearing green eyeshades here," she says.

@BetsyDeVosED @KellyannePolls Betsy DeVos stresses the states will submit the list of scholarship-granting organizations to the federal government that would ultimately benefit from the tax credits.

"It's so simple that it confounds people sometimes," she adds.

@rickhess99: That sounds like Washington.

.@KellyannePolls says Education Freedom Scholarships have tremendous support among conservatives.

Note: Ted Cruz introduced a bill authorizing the proposal in February 2019. It has not budged. congress.gov/bill/116th-con…

Conway says that given polling showing support for these kind of educational options when described "objectively," politics is getting in the way of public opinion.

Kellyanne Conway notes that Success Academy founder Eva Moskowitz was once a client of hers.

A big theme for both @BetsyDeVosED and @KellyannePolls in their remarks today is that pressure will grow on states to participate in Education Freedom Scholarships if initially they choose not to.

.@rickhess99 asks why such opposition to this kind of idea.

"It comes down to a matter of control," Betsy DeVos says.

Opponents to education freedom want control of the resources and all that comes with that, DeVos adds.

.@BetsyDeVosED says that since the U.S. Department of Education was founded 40 years ago, the achievement gap has not closed one bit.

Some recent research on this point: cepa.stanford.edu/educational-op…

.@KellyannePolls says $706 billion per year in federal money is being spent on K-12. If we understood her correctly, that's roughly 10 times the size of the U.S. Department of Education's annual discretionary budget, not all of which goes to K-12.

Total elementary and secondary expenditures *from all sources* (not just the feds) was $706 billion in 2015-16, according to NCES. So it's possible Conway misspoke. nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/i…

Betsy DeVos says a top-down approach has robbed teachers of flexibility over the years.

Good teachers deserve flexibility, while teachers who struggle in the classroom probably should find a different profession, DeVos says.

With the current political infighting, what's the path forward for this to become law, Rick Hess asks.

Kellyanne Conway says, ask them. She says lawmakers are afraid of voting against Education Freedom Scholarships.

Democrats are hypocrites for claiming they're for children and support communities of color yet opposing something like Education Freedom Scholarships, @KellyannePolls says.

There was not an overwhelming dose of optimism in Conway's response to Hess about how Education Freedom Scholarships could become law.

DeVos says her conversations with states have revealed strong support for the proposal.

In response to a question about whether the proposal could cover postsecondary education, DeVos says Education Freedom Scholarships would be focused on the pre-K-12 years.

Wealthy people have education freedom, Betsy DeVos says, and she wants education freedom for everyone else.

.@KellyannePolls pokes fun at the Democrats for forcing John Hickenlooper out of the race and calls it "ironic." She says he was a successful two-term governor from a swing state.

And that's a wrap for our thread on Betsy DeVos, Kellyanne Conway, and Education Freedom Scholarships at AEI. We are out of here.

*Risk