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

Former Secretary of Instruction Betsy Devos thinks that the section she as soon as led should really be abolished. 

Devos, who spent 4 many years as the Education secretary for the duration of the Trump administration, designed the remarks at the inaugural Moms for Liberty summit on Saturday, according to the Florida Phoenix. 

“I personally think the Department of Education need to not exist,” Devos told the primarily conservative group in Tampa, Fla.

Devos was a leading proponent of “education freedom” all through her time in place of work, endorsing vouchers to permit family members to pick out their children’s school.

In a speech in 2020, she stated, “I battle from any person who would have governing administration be the mother or father to anyone.”

Mothers for Liberty is a conservative group that rose to countrywide prominence for its objection to children carrying experience masks at faculty for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The neighborhood information outlet also documented that summit attendees were offered tips on how to recruit, endorse and endorse conservative university board candidates.

Devos is not the very first conservative figure to advise nixing the federal agency charged with overseeing colleges. A group of GOP House customers backed a bill very last calendar year trying to find sought to abolish the Division of Instruction. 

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) launched the monthly bill in February 2021 with co-sponsors such as Reps. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) and Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.). 

“Schools ought to be accountable,” Massie mentioned in a assertion at the time. “Parents have the proper to pick out the most ideal academic opportunity for their kids, like residence school, public university, or personal faculty.”

Devos’s remarks appear as colleges have develop into a battleground for politicized culture wars, with Democrats and Republicans battling around difficulties these kinds of as essential race idea, LGBTQ rights and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. 

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) campaigned on a pledge to give dad and mom a louder voice in universities, when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) drew national blowback with his signing of a invoice barring instructors from speaking about sexual orientation or gender identification in kindergarten via 3rd grade.