Betty ross talks about the 5 billion tax credit scholarship proposal which is pending in congress. Secretary devos is joined by white house advisor Kellyanne Conway at the event hosted by the American Enterprise institute. [applause] thank you. Good morning. Thank you to aei for posting this Important Forum today. Robert, thank you for your hospitality and for a principled conservative leadership, especially now in your new role. Its always a pleasure to be back here with so many friends. Our ideas are advanced by the work of the institute and there are many who worked for the cost of education freedom and for our nations students especially rick so im looking forward to our conversation today. We are here to talk about education freedom scholarships and let me say a few things about our proposal to set the table before our discussion. Heres what it is. A 5 billiondollar annual federal income tax credit for voluntary contributions to 5o1c3 nonprofit organizations that provide scholarships to students. The key element of the proposal is freedom. Freedom for everyone involved. Students, families, teachers, schools, states, any and all could choose to participate or they can elect not to participate in that is what freedom is all about. We know gaining this freedom will require more work in some states than others and certainly in that body of the hill but as more states offer more options to family demand will rise in pressure will mount on those who have not yet erased the opportunity. Ultimately freedom scholarships require only one thing. Students and parents must be empowered to make decisions and choices are in it should come as a surprise to anyone in this room why we stepped forward with a bold transformative idea for students. American education isnt working for too many of them. Weve known this for more than 35 years. The devastating landmark report a nation at risk, detailed the dire state of American Education and warned us all and i quote, history is not kind to eilers. Well, if theres any word to describe too many parts of American Education today it is idle. Using our nations report card and you know what i mean. Two out of three of our nations eighthgraders arent proficient in any core subjects. Two thirds. We arent we also know this. The United States ranks 24th in reading, 25th in science and 40th in math in the world. I dont take any pleasure in reminding anyone about these results. Yet there are many who Pay Lip Service to the sorry state of affairs of education but offer more and more of the same as a solution and more spending and more regulation and more government. They assure us that this time it will work and this time it will be different yet as it said in these halls we are being mugged by reality daily. That is why now is the time to do Something Different and Something Better and embrace the thing that makes America Great freedom. The freedom to learn the freedom to grow the freedom to rise in the freedom to pursue happiness. On this we can all agree or at least we should be able to. I remain dumbfounded that some conservatives who masquerade as education reformers have criticized this proposal. Who would have thought that ted cruz or i, of all people, would be accused of trying to grow the federal government . Think about that for a minute. You all know me. I fought alongside many of you for more than 30 years to expand the freedom of families and diminish the role of government in our lives. I would not support anything that violates my principles or hours. So here is what our education freedom scholarships puzzle doesnt do. It doesnt grow the government bureaucracy one tiny bit. It doesnt create a new Government Office of School Choice and it doesnt impose any new requirements on states or on families. It doesnt take a single dollar from Public School students and it doesnt spend a single dollar of government money. And it doesnt entangle schools with federal strings or stifling red tape. In fact, it cant. That is by design. The truth is our proposal is a highly efficient and effective way of a funding education. It connects the dollars to the students, not the system. With no bureaucratic sponge in between. The education freedom scholarships are the conservative answer to what ails education in america. They also happen to be the answer that a super majority of parents, particularly africanamerican and hispanic parents, are looking for. They are the reason education freedom is on the march from florida to pennsylvania, from illinois to arizona and many places in between. Ive just come back from a tour across the midwest to highlight opportunities education freedom will provide. At every stop i heard from students, families, teachers and local lawmakers about how education freedom is changing lives. But i also heard the loud voices of bullies who are threatened by that freedom. Now, it is the right to demonstrate and to protest into basic things but what worries me, though, is the message they are sending to parents and students. Big union bullying is flat out unjust. It is unfair to the many students and parents who simply want better for themselves or their sons or daughters. Ive been blessed to get to know many families who have exercised education freedom. Many have low incomes and many are black or hispanic and many are burning the candle at both ends to make ends meet and help their children have a better life. They arent anti Public School or for advertising. They could not care less about how school is legally structured or how the funds flow. They care about their kids and care about them getting a great education. They care about them being safe. They care about how schools can help them prepare their children for successful careers and meaningful life. On the other hand union bosses dont put kids first. They dont put kids futures first. They put themselves first. Look no further than west virginia. Many of us remember the first strike which cap students from learning for two weeks. The second strike is far more telling and there was already in place a deal for yet another pay raise. Why did union bosses force another strike . Because the bill would have also allowed for up to seven Charter Schools and would have created the essays for a very small number of families. Maybe enough to satisfy or to serve less than one third of 1 about a thousand of west virginias 300,000 students. This is clearly anti parent and anti student. Education freedom is pro parent and pro student. It is not anti Public School. If your school is working for your child you can stay put. One parents freedom to make a choice doesnt mean you have t to it means everyone else has to make the same choice. Education freedom isnt about elevating one type of school over another. Its about trusting parents and believing in students. My mission is to unleash a new era of innovation in education to drive unprecedented achievement. It will happen in public and private goals like and we should embrace that. Our obligation isnt to any type of school but it is to students and americas students can lead the world. America will continue to lead the world. It is time we put them first and thats exactly what education freedom scholarship will do. Thank you and i am looking forward to our conversation. [applause] thank you, madam secretary. I was terrific. Im director of education poly studies here and we now have 35 minutes for conversation with the secretary and also we have the pleasure of being joined by Kellyanne Conway, senior counselor to the president of the United States. Thank you for joining us. Madam secretary, you talked a bit about the education freedom scholarships but i wonder if we first go a bit more into the nittygritty. You mentioned that these complement existing programs in the state and what are those programs and how does this complement those and how does this all work . Thank you again, rick, for the opportunity to be here but kellyanne, great to be here and see you. States can decide whether or not they want to participate in this program. There are many states today that actually have some kind of choice program. Most of them have public Charter Schools and many of them have private School Choice programs. But this proposal would do is be a booster to all of those programs and could augment and expand existing programs or weve also encouraged people to think more broadly about what new creative ways they could use the funds that would come from that tax credit programs to help satisfy the need in their state. I think about rural states in particular and many times people will say there is no way we will have another building next to a Rural High School but i say think differently about what choice can mean. What about students in the school, one of whom i want to study something that school can possibly offer and that school or the child, that student could elect to take the course virtually from the finest teacher somewhere in the world or perhaps theres a handful of students in the school who learned differently but dont have the opportunity to go somewhere else physically to school and theres a reason why they cannot opt to have a micro school within their school that approached their education, their learning differently and allow them the right fit for them there. There is no end to the ways to be creative to really implement choices for families and this is meant to help jumpstart states that havent taken that leap, not to encourage them to do that and not mandated into argument states that already have taken that leap and want to continue to provide opportunities for students. Counselor, it sounds like were talking more than private School Programs or Charter Schools. Theres a variety of options. How does this work . Say a state already has programs so who decides that they are there and how do they work and how does this money support those programs and how does if congress an excess on how does that change the states . Let me echo the gratitude for elevating such an important issue into the consciousness of the audience here and anyone watching now in the future. Secretary gave a very powerful set of opening remarks that touched upon many different aspects here and i would like to amplify some of those after i answered this particular question. In about 18 states they have programs and they have obviously opted in and these states are not red or blue politically but pretty diverse. Arizona, illinois and in those states you have the way this would work readily your Scholarship Granting Organization and it involves educators, education specialists and perhaps others can weigh in but they have to approve of the formula and in approve of who or what would receive the actual money and what they would do with that one thing that comes with the freedom, secretary has so eloquently spoken to this morning, is flexibly. One of the main points of appeal to me as a publicpolicy practitioner and someone who works on behalf of the country and as a parent is the flexibility to use those monies certainly for the classroom and for traditional curriculum and instruction but also for tutoring. This is for virtual learning, summer programs, need to be educators that have been identified in that area and that is really why even though its on your federal tax form the deduction it would take the credit you take does not reduce your Tax Liability but increases the optimality for these students in these states. With that freedom comes the possibility and i think thats a credible important so this does not disturb the state programs are best practices that show this is already working in places on a statebystate level and they been widely successful. Its truly if you build it, they will come with who has come . Any organizations have come because they figure if they are paying taxes anyway and get it tax credit that helps they can more readily direct that money towards scholarship granting opportunities and this has been a priority for this president and certainly in education but the overall flux ability and the freedom agenda for education i have to say the very first time i met cory booker before he Held Public Office was in the education space. I met him at a school of choice event in new jersey or maybe manhattan but i believe it was new work, new jersey. He was groomsmen in a mutual friend of ours in the School Choice movement. He was able to cross the wedding aisle but not now the political aisle unfortunately and that is unfortunate because as the secretary pointed out she described it as being dumbfounded. Its disheartening, if not maddening, to see a lack of bipartisan consensus on what is quintessentially a nonpartisan issue. We should put the kids first and echo what weve done legislatively the measures like criminal Justice Reform and more proficiently the drug crisis. Every single democrat who voted for hr six that was pensive piece of legislation every civil democrat voted in favor of it. We can do this when its something fundamental and nonpartisan in nature as getting people access to treatment and prevention for drugs as people who have debt to society are no longer languishing in prison and in this case giving the children in the students more flexibly and freedom to learn and prosper and be economically independent. Lets stay with that for a second. Counselor, you mentioned the First Step Act where there was broad bipartisan support. Obviously, weve not seen it before with regard to the Education Scholarships. What is the difference here . Why is this play out differently in education and criminal Justice Reform . The secretary certainly touched upon the essence of the unions and she was remarking that the union bosses dont put the students first. That is true and i would challenge and defy each of them to prove otherwise. What are they so afraid of . It does not take money away from the Public Schools but implies the number of it helps the Public Schools in that as the secretary said maybe that school already offers courses and resources that in other institutional learning does not so perhaps benefit will be for all. I know a lot of the folks who are against and who dont put the students first also dont put their own children in the Public Schools. That is the cruel irony or lets call it hypocrisy. Its past 9 00 a. M. And it is tuesday. Congress is in recess. Its ironic but its hypocritical as well. Back to my point where you have Elizabeth Warren of all people formally talking about the benefit of fully funded vouchers and all the freedom of electability that would draw or deliver in the aforementioned cory booker Many Democrats over the years and i remember with working with senator Joe Lieberman and pastor flake on adhesion reform in a bipartisan fashion in the congress 20 years ago and the only thing that has changed is that we more students in need. I would challenge every one to say the pure naked raw politics and there are two fortunate because we have an entire generation suffering from a lack of bipartisan support but hope springs eternal and maybe they will see that what has happened in their own states and what can happen if we just put it to the test of the federal level. I would echo what kellyanne said every single president and secretary of education since Charter Schools became a thing have supported Charter Schools and their expansion and so it is inconceivable to me that we would now be in a place where democrats resist and deny the benefit to students and that what that freedom can provide and that opportunity for each to find the right fit would mean ultimately for our nation. Lets talk about the school proposal. There is a figure 5 billion attached to it so how does that work . Is the anticipation that there would be 5 billion a year in contributions or how would this be allocated across states . Yes, 5 billion annual fund that individuals or corporations would choose to voluntarily like contribute a portion to their federal tax bill to one of these 5o1c3 organizations so participating states would name the 5o1c3s accuracy them and then if all 50 states participated each state would get a portion of those funds and designated by the title to a formulation. Termination of consideration of poverty and population. For those it states not chose to participate those funds would go to the ones that did choose to participate and i think there would be a lot of pressure from internally from folks in the states the chose not to join in and provide those opportunities and for states that already have programs 5o1c3s would be grandfathered in so automatically participate and expand those programs and do Something Different in addition if they wanted to. Covet an increase with the 5 billion potentially represent to what states are currently seen in their 5o1c3 programs compared to say state Tuition Tax Credit Program or existing state scholarship programs is this a big increase compared to what is already up there . For all those participating states would be a significant boost to what theyre doing today and you know, the suggestion being that states ultimately want to and need to take this opportunity and expand within those states but i think about the prospects for florida which is the state that i often cite as the most advanced providing freedom and opportunity for students and that was or would be a significant boost to and ive heard from Governor Desantis regularly on how important this wou