DeVos Challenges Local Business People on Volatile Education Issues
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Richard DeVos gives a "Charter School Update" to the Tri-County Economics Club
Richard DeVos, Grand Rapids philanthropist, speaking recently to the Tri-County Economics Club, challenged area business leaders to accept the charter school and choice movement, saying: "It's time to change your attitudes and take a new path."
"We as business people are afraid and lack the courage to stand up for things we know work. We know competition drives behavior and brings out the best in schools." He said expansion of the charter school system would make all schools better.
DeVos' highly politically charged speech, criticizing Gov. Jennifer Granholm, Sen. Ted Kennedy and other Democrats for their opposition to the school choice movement, led one observer to comment after the meeting: "He sounds like he's running for governor."
The education reformer, whose wife, Betsy DeVos, is chairperson of the Michigan Republican Party, also called for abolishing the 57 intermediate schools in the state. He said ISDs are "a needless and costly layer of bureaucracy" and pointed to a growing scandal about misuse of funds by the Oakland County Intermediate School District.
DeVos is most concerned about educational opportunities available to poor and minority children.
"This is a complex issue, but one of critical importance," said DeVos. "Education underlies every hope of achievement in the state; it is absolutely critical to our being able to achieve economic success."
He said major school failures are in urban areas, "where education is needed more desperately than ever." But he added that even good schools can be made better.
One Midland businessman, noting that he was a 1940 graduate of Midland High School, agreed, commenting: "Students are put on the assembly line and dumped out the doorunprepared."
Successful public school districts have nothing to fear from the charter and choice movement, he said. "People who live in the best school districts are most hostile and fearful of change," said DeVos, commenting: "Your world would not turn upside down."
Questioned about the lack of parental involvement as a culprit in poor school performance, DeVos said: "The most fundamental choice of choosing where their child goes to school would encourage more parental involvement."
Asked about how he addresses the issue of separation of church and state in connection with the school voucher issue, DeVos said that question was settled by the U.S. Supreme Court in a recent Cleveland case: "Vouchers are parental choice, not government choice. This is not establishment of religion; that issue is off the table." DeVos said he is hopeful that school vouchers soon will be approved in Washington, D.C., which he said has "the worst public school system in the country."
The former Amway Corporation president, who established the Educational Freedom Fund that has provided 4,000 partial private school scholarships to children, noted that the demand by parents for a change in their child's school was so great there were 64,000 applications for those scholarships.
There are 180 charter schools in Michigan and a waiting list of 12,000 students, according to DeVos. He said a recent survey by Michigan State University shows that 70 percent of Michigan residents favor charterschools. Charter schools are public schools funded by the state but are outside the main structure of the state education system. They have independent boards but are required to follow state regulations regarding teacher certification.
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