This is from Politico in 2017:

As DeVos seeks to expand school choice nationwide, including online options, Pennsylvania serves as a case study in the shortcomings of the virtual charter school model, or cyber charter schools, as they are known there. The state’s 14 virtual charter schools have flourished in rural communities over the last 15 years — so much so that Pennsylvania, along with Ohio and California, now account for over half the enrollment in the nation’s full-time virtual charters, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.

Actually, DeVos has had a financial stake in virtual charters. From NPR:

Betsy DeVos and her husband, Dick DeVos, formerly owned stock in K12 Inc. In October, Kevin Chavous was hired as K12 Inc.’s president of academics, policy and schools. Chavous was a founding board member of the American Federation for Children, the organization DeVos chaired before joining the Trump administration.

K12 has had a presence in NC.

But of course, this is what DeVos is saying now:

The differences between “remote” and “distance” and “virtual” are hard to peg, but they seem to change when it comes to the narrative that is being pushed. Especially when it comes to private money and politicians.

This “aboutface” has happened in NC as well with Senator Phil Berger. This morning Rob Schofield from NC Policy Watch released a post today that is very much worth the read. Entitled “Phil Berger does a 180 on virtual learning,” Schofield calls out the hypocrisy of the lawmaker.

Here is part of it:

Now flash forward a year and see how — apparently in deference to President Trump’s desperate efforts to reopen schools in order to help jump-start the economy at all costs — the Right is now singing a wildly different tune.

First, there’s Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, a supposed passionate defender of local control in education and virtual schooling, threatening to withhold federal money from schools that don’t reopen right away.

And now comes Senator Phil Berger (or his staff, anyway) in a new post on the website Medium warning readers about the terrible threat that virtual education poses to — we’re not making this up — poor kids. In the post, Berger cites a recent story on Yahoo! News that highlighted research by pointy-headed liberals at Harvard in which they documented the challenges that virtual education poses to low-income kids.

That post on Medium?

Maybe Berger should honor the Leandro decision.