Exclusive: Betsy DeVos Says Federal Government Has Failed to Improve Education

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos spoke exclusively to The Daily Signal’s Rob Bluey for an on-camera interview at the Reagan Institute Summit on Education on Thursday. This week, the Department of Education released what’s known as the “nation’s report card.” DeVos addressed its disappointing results and how the Trump administration is pursuing reforms to improve education in America. The full video and an edited transcript of the interview is below.

Rob Bluey: Thirty-five years ago, the Reagan administration issued its “A Nation at Risk” report. Here we are 35 years later, and just this week you said, “We can and we must do better for America’s students.” How are you and President Trump going about doing that?

Betsy DeVos: Let’s look at the reality. With the [National Assessment of Educational Progress] results that just came out this week, we look at the historical patterns. And while there’s been minimal gains in the results, the reality is that, all of the results have been unremarkable over these years, since the NAEP has been administered.

I would argue that we are indeed a nation still at risk. In fact, I think we’re at greater risk today even than 35 years ago. When we look at how the world around us has changed, how technology has advanced in so many different sectors of society, and yet with education, our students just are simply not being prepared as a rule.

More