WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is reminding charter school advocates that there’s more than one form of school choice and warning those fighting against other options.

“Education is not a zero-sum game. We should not think of it as such. There is no one right way to help kids learn, and just because a school educates children differently than you might propose to does not make them the enemy,” DeVos told about 4,500 educators who gathered for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools conference in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday.

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“Let’s applaud and encourage others who serve students well,” she said. “It’s a both-and situation, not an either-or.”

DeVos was addressing a growing rift in the charter school community over philosophical differences centered on publicly funded schools and privately funded schools. Many charter school proponents oppose DeVos’ plan to expand private school voucher programs through federal funding and incentives for states.

But true school choice is rooted in the belief that parents should be free to choose the best education for their child, and DeVos spoke about how many charter school advocates have drifted away from that mission.

“Charter schools were created to address the fact that for too many kids, their assigned public school wasn’t working for them. The early charter school leaders weren’t afraid to color outside of the lines, and in fact, they embraced the creativity, innovation and flexibility charters represented,” DeVos said.

“But somewhere along the way, in the intervening 26 years and through the process of expansion, we’ve taken the colorful collage of charters and drawn our own set of lines around it to box others out, to mitigate risk, to play it safe,” she continued. “This is not what we set out to do, and, more importantly, it doesn’t help kids.

“No one has a monopoly on innovation. No one has a monopoly on creativity. No one has a monopoly on knowing how every child learns.”

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DeVos spoke at length about how charter schools have changed the lives of many students for the better, and heaped praise on the teachers who staff those schools. But she also warned charter advocates to be careful of becoming part of the education bureaucracy that’s dragged down student learning in many traditional public schools, and to refrain from fighting against more educational options for families.

“Charters’ success should be celebrated, but it’s equally important not to ‘become the man.’ I thought it was a tough but fair criticism when a friend recently wrote in an article that many who call themselves ‘reformers’ have instead become just another breed of bureaucrats – a new education establishment,” DeVos said.

“We don’t need 500 page charter school application,” she said. “That’s not progress. That’s fundamentally at odds with why parents demanded charters in the first place.”

The education secretary closed her remarks by addressing school choice proponents who have criticized President Trump’s budget for alleged cuts to education and a focus on expanding private school voucher opportunities for parents.

“Today we have a great opportunity,” she said. “While some of you have criticized the president’s budget – which you have every right to do – it’s important to remember that our budget proposal supports the greatest expansion of public school choice in the history of the United States.

“It significantly increases support for the Charter School Program, and adds an additional $1 billion for public school choice for states that choose to adopt it.”

“This administration has sent a clear message: we trust parents, and we believe in students. We will fight for every parent and every child, especially those who for too long have been forgotten,” Devos said. “The window of opportunity is narrow and the states are too high for us not to act. We must act boldly, and we must act now.”