Several months ago, Sen. Lamar Alexander phoned Education Secretary Betsy DeVos with a message: Back off.
Alexander, the Republican chairman of the Senate HELP Committee, was furious that a top DeVos aide was circumventing a new law aimed at reducing the federal government’s role in K-12 education. He contended that the agency was out of bounds by challenging state officials, for instance, about whether they were setting sufficiently ambitious goals for their students.
DeVos’ agency quickly yielded to his interpretation of the law — and she “thanked me for it,” Alexander told POLITICO.
Alexander’s heavy hand raises questions about who’s calling some of the shots at the Education Department, an agency he once headed — and to which DeVos came with virtually no expertise in running government bureaucracies.
DeVos has been a lightning rod in the education world and one of the most controversial members of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet. She made her name as a school choice activist and billionaire Republican donor before she was nominated to run the Education Department. With Alexander running the key Senate oversight committee, observers say he’s trying to keep her agency on a tight leash.
But some see Alexander’s moves earlier this summer as presumptuous — and believe they not only abruptly changed how the agency is enforcing the law, called the Every Student Succeeds Act, but could translate into little to no federal oversight of state education. Critics note the law imposed certain requirements to protect poor and minority students, whose performance often lags behind their peers’. They worry whether states will adequately track and provide equal opportunities for at-risk kids or face consequences from the Education Department if they fail to do that.
For more read the full of article at The Politico.
