On-Air Now
On-Air Now

DeVos under fire for calling HBCUs ‘pioneers’ of school choice

By

/

By Emanuella Grinberg
 CNN

Supporters of historically black colleges and universities say US Education Secretary Betsy needs a history lesson after calling schools created in response to racial segregation “pioneers” of school choice.  DeVos issued the statement Monday after meeting HBCU leaders in the White House with President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, the first of a two-day event to foster introductions between campus executives and the administration.  DeVos is an ardent supporter of diverting federal funds to school choice, or alternatives to public schools. In her statement, she said a key priority for the administration is to develop opportunities for underserved communities through funding and structural reforms, just as HBCUs have done “since their founding.”

She praised the schools for identifying a system that wasn’t working — “an absence of opportunity” — and taking it upon themselves “to provide the solution.”

“They started from the fact that there were too many students in America who did not have equal access to education,” she said of the schools.

“HBCUs are real pioneers when it comes to school choice. They are living proof that when more options are provided to students, they are afforded greater access and greater quality.”

However well-intentioned, her statement triggered backlash among HBCU supporters who said she failed to acknowledge the real reason for their creation.
HBCUs arose in response to racist Jim Crow laws in the American South that enforced segregation, shutting out black students from traditionally white schools with a few exceptions.

“Excuse me, [Betsy DeVos], the system you’re describing isn’t ‘choice.’ It’s Jim Crow and segregation,” U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, a Minnesota Democrat, said on Twitter.
U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, a California Democrat, called the statement “tone-deaf” and “uninformed,” noting that for many years, HBCUs weren’t additional options but the “only option.”

Meanwhile, the HBCU Digest described the “HBCU Fly-In” event “a rare advocacy convening” in which the administration declared its “admiration and support for the mission of historically black colleges and universities.”

The Trump administration is expected to reveal a new executive order related to funding and federal support that advocates call “among the most progressive partnerships between the White House and HBCUs in decades,” according to HBCU Digest.

The-CNN-Wire ™ & © 2017 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.