--- title: Betsy DeVos Struggled With Questions on Her Education Work description: Betsy DeVos, a proponent of school choice, clumsily responded to questions about the benefits of the program in her home state of Michigan canonical: https://time.com/5195452/betsy-devos-60-minutes-questions/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-03-12T15:00:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:06:08.835Z article:section: Politics og:title: Betsy DeVos Reshaped Michigan Schools. But She Can't Say They've Gotten Better og:description: Trump's Education Secretary has become a lightning rod og:url: https://time.com/5195452/betsy-devos-60-minutes-questions/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte9f662f81fce9047/69892a7acf40a8b0ecc4b9ce/gettyimages-928552580.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos Speaks To Media After Visiting Students At Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Betsy DeVos Reshaped Michigan Schools. But She Can't Say They've Gotten Better twitter:description: Trump's Education Secretary has become a lightning rod twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte9f662f81fce9047/69892a7acf40a8b0ecc4b9ce/gettyimages-928552580.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Betsy DeVos Helped Reshape Michigan Schools. But She Won't Say Whether Her Reforms Made Them Better ## Video: Education Secretary Addresses Students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School [Watch (HLS stream): Education Secretary Addresses Students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/VHISlkNM.m3u8) (1:32)  _Published 2018-03-07. Betsy DeVos made her way around Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., where a gunman killed 17 students and teachers last month_ by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Mar 12, 2018 3:00 PM UTC  U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos speaks to the news during a press conference held at the Heron Bay Marriott about her visit to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland on March 7, 2018 in Coral Springs, Florida. DeVos was visiting the high school following the February 14 shooting that killed 17 people. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos speaks to the news during a press conference held at the Heron Bay Marriott about her visit to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland on March 7, 2018 in Coral Springs, Florida. DeVos was visiting the high school following the February 14 shooting that killed 17 people. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)Joe Raedle—Getty Images by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Mar 12, 2018 3:00 PM UTC [Education Secretary Betsy DeVos](http://time.com/5053007/betsy-devos-education-secretary-2017-controversies/) was pressed on the benefits of school choice during an interview on [CBS’s _60 Minutes_](https://www.cbsnews.com/video/betsy-devos-on-guns-school-choice-and-why-people-dont-like-her/) that aired on Sunday. The tense exchange led the Trump Cabinet official to concede that perhaps she should actually visit the struggling schools that school choice programs divert funds away from in favor of giving some students access to private education. A longtime proponent of choice, DeVos stumbled through her answer when asked how such efforts had worked to improve the public schools in her home state of Michigan. “Have the public schools in Michigan gotten better?” journalist Lesley Stahl asked. “I don’t know. Overall, I — I can’t say overall that they have all gotten better,” DeVos responded. > [](https://twitter.com/60Minutes/status/972979611779915776) Stahl pointed out that programs that diverted funds away from struggling public schools to private ones did not, as DeVos and other advocates have argued. Stahl said: “No, but your argument that if you take funds away that the schools will get better is not working in Michigan, where you had a huge impact and influence over the direction of the school system here.” Initially, DeVos said she was “hesitant” to discuss schools generally because “schools are made up of individual students attending them,” to which Stahl responded that schools across the state are performing poorly. > [](https://twitter.com/60Minutes/status/972979438886510598) An assessment of student performance on a national test showed that Michigan students have made little improvement since 2003, according to the [Detroit _News_](https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2017/02/20/michigan-test-score-gains-worst-nation/98144368/). In 2016, the president of the Michigan state board of education, John Austin, told [Politico](https://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/betsy-devos-michigan-school-experiment-232399) that the expansion of school choice was “destroying learning outcomes … and the DeVoses were a principal agent of that.” Toward the end of the exchange Stahl, who also discussed school safety, sexual assault on campus, and #MeToo with DeVos, suggested that the Secretary of Education should actually pay of visit to underperforming schools after she revealed that she had not done so. “I have not, I have not, I have not intentionally visited schools that are underperforming,” DeVos said.” “Maybe you should,” said Stahl. “Maybe I should. 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