On 1/17/17 the Senate Help, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee conducting its hearing on Secretary-Nominee Betsy DeVos.

Here are three short takeaways for charter school authorizers:

• Charter schools—specifically charter school oversight and accountability—were a big discussion topic. Charter school authorizers (in the form of charter “overseeing bodies”) were explicitly referenced by the Secretary-nominee in one of her responses on accountability. The 74 has a good summary of her answers on charters and choice.

• Any large scale changes to education funding—such as the $20B school choice proposal from President-elect Trump—will have to go through Congress. The Secretary-nominee said she would not use her position to mandate that states adopt a particular choice program.

• Secretary Nominee DeVos clearly views parent choice as an integral aspect of her education philosophy: “Why, in 2017, are we still questioning parents’ ability to exercise educational choice for their children? I am a firm believer that parents should be empowered to choose the learning environment that’s best for their individual children.”