Former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos blamed teachers unions for the lost learning time of students during the coronavirus pandemic in an opinion article in the Washington Examiner on Monday and lauded several states for adopting expanded school choice programs, saying such a policy is the solution to failures in public education.
"The abject failures of the government-run, union-controlled education system have been laid bare for all to see the past two years," DeVos wrote. "Students across the nation have suffered unthinkable learning loss, unprecedented mental health problems, and lost time and opportunities that can never be recovered or replaced.
"Those failures, layered on top of multiple pre-COVID failures, are devastating."
DeVos said teachers unions are especially to blame for the dismal state of the nation's students, as the unions encouraged extended school closures amid the pandemic.
"The most recent data conclude it will take students three to five years, on average, to catch up academically to where they would have been had the pandemic school lockouts never happened," she wrote. "The long-term damage inflicted on them by the school union bosses and their allies who kept schools closed is inexcusable."
However, DeVos noted that change often comes from such setbacks, and that parents and state governments nationwide seized the opportunity of the more evident failures during the pandemic and started pushing for policies that would weaken or eliminate the control that unions have over public education.
DeVos particularly expressed appreciation for Republican Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey for his leadership in pushing for the nation's most expansive school choice program.
Under legislation enacted this summer, every student in Arizona is now eligible for a $7,000 tax credit scholarship that can be used for all types of expenses related to school, including private school tuition.
"The fight to free the educational hostages, our children, is far from over," DeVos wrote. "But with parents across the nation awakened and education freedom policies on the march, there are many reasons to believe this back-to-school season will be the best yet."