Meris Stansbury

School choice, support of teachers unions, and her record in Michigan have been the leading controversial talking points in education when it comes to Donald Trump’s pick for Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos. But with a background in technology investment, could DeVos be a leader in the support of successfully-implemented edtech?

According to Philanthropy magazine in spring 2013, DeVos serves as chairman of the Windquest Group—a privately held, multi-company operating group that invests in technology, manufacturing, and clean energy—which she founded with her husband in 1989. In 2013, DeVos said when it comes to education reform strategies, she is most focused on educational choice. “But, thinking more broadly, what we are trying to do is tear down the mindset that assigns students to a school based solely on the zip code of their family’s home. We advocate instead for as much freedom as possible,” she said. “One long-term trend that’s working in our favor is technology. It seems to me that, in the internet age, the tendency to equate ‘education’ with ‘specific school buildings’ is going to be greatly diminished. Within the right framework of legislation, that freedom will ultimately be healthy for the education of our kids.”

Education technology can enable achievement for students with a variety of learning styles. But it also creates a problem: For students who don’t have access to these forms of technology-enabled learning -- bring-your-own-device, for instance -- the digital divide grows.

Now, as many states across the country begin to support multiple online and blended learning programs, states that still don’t support these learning styles are creating an alarming disadvantage for their students. “Keeping Pace with K-12 Online & Blended Learning,” a massive data report compiled by the Evergreen Education Group, a private consulting and advisory firm specializing in education and education technology, provides a snapshot of the K-12 online and blended learning landscape across 50 states as of late 2013, and makes many forward-looking statements on the future of online and blended learning. One of those statements describes the new digital divide.

“For students, there is a substantial difference between going to school in a state committed to quality online and blended learning opportunities, and a state without,” emphasizes the report. “This difference is large and growing, and threatens to open a new educational digital divide: one separating students who have access to 21st century learning opportunities, and those who do not.”