Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Monday night released a statement suggesting that historically black colleges were the product of a “school choice” movement, prompting swift backlash on Twitter and from Democratic lawmakers.
“They started from the fact that there were too many students in America who did not have equal access to education,” DeVos said in a statement. “They saw that the system wasn’t working, that there was an absence of opportunity, so they took it upon themselves to provide the solution.”
“HBCUs are real pioneers when it comes to school choice,” she added. “They are living proof that when more options are provided to students, they are afforded greater access and greater quality. Their success has shown that more options help students flourish.”
DeVos’ statement painting African Americans’ efforts to create higher education options for themselves in a segregated society as a “choice” earned her criticism from Democratic members of Congress and others:
Read the whole statement. It is BANANAS. Says the solution to school segregation was to build more black only schools. I’m not kidding. https://t.co/MOZ8RyUUfe
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) February 28, 2017
Totally nuts. DeVos pretending that establishment of historically black colleges was about choice not racism. https://t.co/gROpItxRx4
— Claire McCaskill (@clairecmc) February 28, 2017
No, Sec. DeVos- the segregation and inequality that forced the establishment of HBCUs is not a model of “school choice.” https://t.co/CIotGpKzBH
— Senator Bob Casey (@SenBobCasey) February 28, 2017
Is this a joke? HBCUs exist because racist white folks wouldn’t let black people into their school. We didn’t have a “choice.” pic.twitter.com/yQkrgeNWlN
— Brandon E. Patterson (@myblackmindd) February 28, 2017
That statement erases the context in which HBCUs were birthed and twists their history to support an agenda that hurts HBCUs students tbw.
— Brandon E. Patterson (@myblackmindd) February 28, 2017
I’m still just blown away at DeVos using HBCUs to reinforce rhetoric on (resegregating) school choice. The snake eats its tail.
— Vann R. Newkirk II (@fivefifths) February 28, 2017
Betsy DeVos on HBCUs as “school choice” vs. basic historical facts about segregation on her own department’s website pic.twitter.com/b6fs5v78W0
— Brendan Nyhan (@BrendanNyhan) February 28, 2017
Betsy DeVos’s sees HBCUs as pioneers of “school choice,” as if black students had a “choice” to go to white colleges in segregated America. pic.twitter.com/75YKvjB70x
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) February 28, 2017
