U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who spent the past four years clashing with staffers at the department, is now pressing the career employees to “resist” the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden.
“Let me leave you with this plea: Resist,” DeVos said, according to a recording of a virtual, department-wide meeting obtained by Politico. “Be the resistance against forces that will derail you from doing what’s right for students. In everything you do, please put students first — always.”
It’s unclear how sabotaging the Biden administration would help students.
DeVos, a billionaire and longtime proponent of school vouchers, has repeatedly drawn criticism from educators, parents, and Democrats for making unpopular decisions that placed students at risk. She threatened to strip schools of federal funding if they failed to reopened during the COVID-19 pandemic.
She revamped Title IX rules governing sexual assault and misconduct in schools and colleges, providing extra protections for students accused of sexual assault.
And she disparaged public education and even suggested guns belong in schools.
Biden has not yet named DeVos’ successor. In July 2019, he pledged to replace DeVos with a teacher.
“First thing, as president of United States — not a joke — first thing I will do is make sure that the secretary of education is not Betsy DeVos,” Biden said at a candidate event with the National Education Association in Houston. “It is a teacher. A teacher. Promise.”
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This article appears in Dec 16-22, 2020.
