DeVos declines to say whether she'd send her kids to a Milwaukee voucher school

Congressman Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) tried to grill Education Secretary Betsy DeVos Wednesday about the performance of the Milwaukee voucher program, at one point asking her if she'd send her own children to one of the city's lowest-performing voucher schools.

DeVos demurred on that question during a House subcommittee hearing. Later, she suggested that it would be up to states to figure out how to hold private schools accountable for the millions of public dollars they would receive under the Trump administration's proposed budget.

In their sprightly exchange, Pocan, who supports public schools, and DeVos, a longtime advocate of private schools, managed to do something remarkable: Explain the entire history and controversy over school vouchers in Wisconsin in under six minutes.

Here are some highlights from the house subcommittee meeting, plus a few fact checks:

• Pocan asks DeVos if she would send her children to a Milwaukee voucher school called Right Step, Inc. He quotes data reported in the Journal Sentinel that 7% of students were proficient in English and 0% were proficient in math. But that's an old story. The school's academic record now is worse: Just 2% of Right Step students were proficient in math and no students were proficient in English on the 2015-'16 state tests.
• Instead of answering the question, DeVos reminds Pocan that the late Polly Williams, a Democratic lawmaker, was the first to introduce the Milwaukee voucher program. 
• Pocan points out that Williams, before she died, said the program had not lived up to its promise.
• They're both right. 
• "This is tax policy, not education policy," Pocan says, alluding to how more middle-class parents in Wisconsin are accessing vouchers.
• DeVos: "I really applaud Milwaukee for empowering parents to make the decisions that they think are right for their students and their children."
• Pocan cuts her off in the middle of the next sentence, saying the Milwaukee program has had dismal results. Pocan continues to talk over DeVos until the committee chairman asks him to let DeVos answer his question.
• Pocan wants to know about accountability for the private schools that would get more federal dollars. DeVos says that will be left up to states, under the plans they create to implement the Every Student Succeeds Act. *But in reality, no states would propose voucher-school accountability standards in their ESSA plans, because federal education law only applies to public schools, and all voucher schools are private schools (and usually religious).

The Trump administration's budget proposal would offer an additional $1.4 billion for school choice, including $250 million for private and religious schools, $168 million for charter schools and $1 billion for school districts to adopt systems that allow public dollars to follow students to whatever schools their parents select. 

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*This story was modified after it was posted to clarify that accountability requirements under ESSA do not apply to private schools.

Contact Erin Richards at (414) 224-2705 or erin.richards@jrn.com or @emrichards on Twitter.