Starting With Wyoming BIE School, DeVos Set to Visit Schools in States Aligned With Senate Education Committee
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is embarking on a cross-country journey to promote education. DeVos will commence her back-to-school tour in Wyoming on Tuesday and continue to visit various states including Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, and Indiana until Friday. The purpose of her tour is to showcase "innovative educational settings" that are reimagining the traditional concept of school, as stated by the Education Department.
During her visit, she plans to drop by the Woods Learning Center, a small public elementary-middle school in Casper. Additionally, she intends to visit St. Stephens Indian High School, which is part of the Bureau of Indian Education campus that was established over a century ago on the Wind River Reservation. In a press release, DeVos expressed her enthusiasm for the tour, highlighting the new and exciting approaches being taken by education leaders and advocates across the nation. She aims to emphasize successful practices, encourage local education leaders to embrace creativity, empower parents with more options, and promote student-centered education opportunities.
Although further details about the tour schedule are limited, the chosen states align with the Senate committees responsible for overseeing DeVos’s work. These committees, which handle the implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act and the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, include Senators from Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, and Indiana. Additionally, Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri chairs the subcommittee responsible for the department’s funding.
The specific dates of DeVos’s visits within each state, the schools she will visit, and whether they cater to pre-K, K-12, or higher education remains unknown. The Education Department has not provided any additional information despite attempts to contact them.
There are possibilities that DeVos may visit the Kansas City Academy in Missouri, a private school with a focus on art that is known for its inclusive environment, accepting students with diverse sexual and gender identities. In Nebraska, federal officials have expressed interest in visiting a science-focused program operated through the Lincoln Zoo, although the visit is still tentative according to officials from the Lincoln Public Schools.
DeVos has already visited 24 schools ranging from pre-K to 12th grade, including private, charter, and traditional public schools, as well as five colleges. Earlier this year, she delivered the commencement address at Bethune-Cookman University, a historically black college in Florida.
The tradition of a back-to-school tour was initiated by former education secretary Arne Duncan in 2010, and both his successor John King and DeVos have continued the tradition. In previous years, these tours covered various states and themes including opportunity, success, progress, and the economy.
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