Betsy DeVos tells Hillsdale College its time to “Go Dutch”

Hillsdale College

Concordia Teachers College in River Forest, Illinois (now Concordia University—Chicago) is the oldest college of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. From it, I graduated with a B.A. in Education and was certified to teach in the state of Illinois. Later, I would also be certified by the state of Nebraska. Although my path led to the pulpit rather than the classroom, I have never forgotten those roots.

Concordia Teachers College inculcated in her students a fundamental rule of education: teachers teach “in loco parentis,” that is, in the place of parents. Every time a teacher sets foot in the classroom he or she serves in the place of parents. Teachers should not push their own agenda, but that of the parents who entrust to them their children. That makes teaching a sacred trust. It is an extension of the home, not a replacement of it.

CUC Administration Building

This fundamental rule is rarely observed these days. Too often evil cultural forces co-opt the classroom to undermine the values that students are learning at home. The Bible is mocked. The “Western-prescribed nuclear family structure” is disrupted. America’s worldview, oriented toward a transcendent God, is replaced by a worldview where random chance creates nothing of meaning, goodness or purpose.

This is not an indictment of the myriad faithful teachers who work with parents to build up (educate) students in both mind and spirit. It is rather, the result of educational decisions that are made without the input of either parent or teacher. It was the French Revolution that introduced the “view that education was a responsibility of government – not of parents,” according to Betsy DeVos, secretary of the U.S. Department of Education.

The further removed from the parent-child relationship, the less likely educational choices will serve in loco parentis. You don’t get much further removed than the U.S. Department of Education. So, what DeVos said at Hillsdale College on October 19 turned heads. When the head of a $68-billion bureaucracy speaks like this, she deserves our attention.

Betsy DeVos, Secretary US ED

“Let’s begin by reasserting this fundamental truth: the family is the ‘first school,’” she said, as a foremost principle. “Many in Washington, think that because of their power there, they can make decisions for parents everywhere. In that troubling scenario, the school building replaces the home, the child becomes a pawn, and the state replaces the family.” In Washington, money is power—and the Department of Education throws around a lot of it.

DeVos reminded the audience that the department she heads is the youngest cabinet level department. It only began operation in 1980. In 40 years, it has spent over a trillion dollars of federal taxpayer money. What is the focus of that spending? According to DeVos, it is not students. “It’s on rules and regulations. Staff and standards. Spending and strings. On protecting the ‘system.’”

That inversion of priorities is what she is working to change. “When I took on this role, I said from day one that I’d like to work myself out of a job.” That means empowering parents, not politicians. “Our schools exist because we pay for them,” she said. Therefore, “we should be empowered to spend our education dollars our way on our kids.”

She developed this simple principle throughout the speech. The way to improve our education system is to return control of education dollars to the parents of those being educated. It is through this lens that DeVos’ tenure at the Department of Education should be judged. She wishes not merely to improve the way the department spends money. Her intent is to change who spends the money.

Drawing on her own Dutch heritage, DeVos explained how Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920) repaired the education system in the Netherlands and how his work is a model of her own approach. As noted above, the French Revolution introduced the notion that education is the responsibility of the government alone—to the exclusion of parents. From Paris, this idea spread like a virus. Before long, the government in The Hague was importing it into law.

Dutch parents became increasingly unhappy with a government that “claimed the right to set up the school for all children.” This system, said Kuyper, “summons [their] children from [their] homes yet increasingly erases every distinctive feature of families” and “provides uniform guidance to every child.”

Kuyper took the antithetical position. As DeVos explained it: “the education of children is within the family’s sphere, so parents are ‘called’ to ‘determine the choice of school’ for their children.” Elected to parliament in 1874, a central pursuit of Kuyper’s advocacy for parents revolved around the equalization of parent-controlled schools with government-controlled schools.

It took 43 years to accomplish, but in the end “Dutch families won a constitutional amendment in 1917 which gave children’s futures back to parents,” said DeVos. “And today, they are in control of their education dollars to pay for their kids to attend the schools of their choosing.”

As if to punctuate the importance of parental choice in the education of free people, 1917 was the very same year when the Communists in Mexico took over Roman Catholic schools and outlawed all religious education. It was also the year when, within days of taking power, the Bolsheviks seized all the educational institutions of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Against this backdrop of history, how does DeVos plan to revitalize American education? She hears “a mighty chorus, rising in volume and urgency, supporting parental ‘school choice.’” According to a September survey from RealClear Opinion Research, three out of four registered voters want school choice. This includes, “73 percent of black families and 71 percent of Hispanic families.”

It is also a non-partisan issue. Independents (73%), Democrats (72%) and Republicans (76%) all agree. Parents of students in public schools (78%) want school choice practically as much as the parents of privately-run schools (79%). DeVos is not so much pushing an agenda as riding a wave. In her estimation, “‘School choice’ is not a matter of ‘if,’ it’s a matter of ‘when.’”

DeVos said, “If we get the family and its freedom right, everything else that’s wrong about our culture will right itself. Rebuild the family, restore its power, and we will reclaim everything right about America, and us."

Senator Tim Scott, South Carolina

DeVos wants to work herself out of a job. Toward this end, the Department of Education actively supports the bipartisan School Choice Now Act. This legislation “would directly fund families and empower them to choose the best educational setting for their children.”

The department also fought alongside the families of Montana all the way to the Supreme Court. In June they won the Espinoza v. Montana case. This case struck down the anti-religious “Blaine Amendments” designed to require parents who want a choice in education to pay twice. First, they have to pay for a public education, which they don’t want. Then, they have to pay again for the education of their choosing.

Parents across America, and across Wyoming, are seeing their educational preferences pushed aside as much by multinational corporations and special interests as by politicians and unions. Families are rising up with one voice to regain control over educational dollars. Educational freedom serves children and families. And it preserves freedom for all.

Secretary DeVos is listening and responding. Will Wyoming’s legislators and educators join her?