Teach For America Statement on the Occasion of the Appointment of U.S. Department of Education Secretary Designate Betsy DeVos

New York, November 23, 2016—Following the president-elect’s indisputably hostile and racially charged campaign that on many points was in conflict with Teach For America’s core values and mission, the organization today released a statement on the occasion of the appointment of Secretary Designate Betsy DeVos to the U.S. Department of Education:

Teach For America lives by our values and always stands in solidarity with the most vulnerable students. The children we work for, and we ourselves, are Native, Black, Jewish, Latinx, Asian American and Pacific Islander, White, Immigrant, Muslim, LGBTQ, living with disabilities, and more. The Teach For America community includes more than 50,000 people from all backgrounds and political ideologies. We value diversity, equity, and inclusiveness, and we refuse to accept racism, bigotry, or discrimination in any form.

We call on the secretary designee and president-elect to uphold these values in pursuit of an excellent and equitable public education for all. We have worked in a bipartisan way to advance educational opportunities specifically for low-income communities and communities of color. We will continue to fiercely advocate and defend policies that are core to our mission and that increase opportunity for our students, including:

• Protection of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and passage of the DREAM Act and pathways to citizenship for individuals brought to our country as children.
• Preservation of high expectations and swift interventions for schools under the Every Student Succeeds Act
• Reauthorization of a Higher Education Act that expands access for qualified low-income Americans to demonstrably high-value colleges
• SAFE classrooms for LGBTQ youth and teachers
• Safe classrooms for students and teachers with disabilities
• Safe classrooms for Muslim students and teachers
• Culturally responsive teaching and training and supporting our teachers in these practices
• School accountability and transparency regardless of public school governance model
• Using evidence and data to drive instruction and teacher improvement and development over time
• Preservation and expansion of the unique and critical bipartisan commitment to national service
• Halting the school-to-prison pipeline, including training teachers on equitable classroom management and restorative school and community practices