Trump education secretary says ‘Department of Education should not exist’

(The Hill) — Previous Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos believes that the office she as soon as led need to be abolished. 

DeVos, who spent 4 a long time as the instruction secretary all through the Trump administration, made the remarks at the inaugural “Moms For Liberty” summit on Saturday, in accordance to the Florida Phoenix. 

“I individually believe the Division of Schooling must not exist,” Devos explained to the typically conservative group in Tampa, Fla.

DeVos was a primary proponent of “education freedom” through her time in office, selling vouchers to allow for family members to pick out their children’s universities.

In a speech in 2020, she explained, “I struggle versus everyone who would have authorities be the father or mother to absolutely everyone.”

“Moms For Liberty” is a conservative group that rose to countrywide prominence for its objection to youngsters putting on facemasks at college in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The neighborhood information outlet also claimed that summit attendees ended up supplied strategies on how to recruit, encourage, and endorse conservative faculty board candidates.

DeVos is not the initially conservative figure to recommend nixing the federal company billed with overseeing faculties. A team of GOP Residence users backed a bill very last calendar year in search of to abolish the Section of Instruction. 

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) introduced the invoice in February 2021, with co-sponsors which includes Reps. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), and Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.). 

“Schools ought to be accountable,” Massie claimed in a statement at the time. “Parents have the proper to decide on the most proper instructional possibility for their small children, together with property college, public college, or private university.”

DeVos’s remarks appear as educational institutions have develop into a central battleground for politicized lifestyle wars, with Democrats and Republicans battling over issues this kind of as vital race principle, LGBTQ legal rights, and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. 

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) campaigned on a pledge to give mothers and fathers a louder voice in schools, while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis drew countrywide blowback with his signing of a invoice barring teachers from talking about sexual orientation or gender identification in grades K-3.