BILLINGS — A high-ranking federal education official has toured Pryor public schools and Billings’ Skyview High School to highlight their programs.
The Billings Gazette reports Deputy Secretary of Education Mick Zais’ tour on Tuesday was about promoting school programs on cultural initiatives and alternatives to college early, and not about informing federal education policy.
Zais says he wants to see a smaller role by the federal government in education regulation and education spending.
He called the notion that all students should go to college to succeed a well-intentioned but “unfair and untrue” idea when there are trade industries, two-year degrees and the military.
Zais was a former U.S. Army brigadier general and South Carolina’s education superintendent before he become deputy to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.