In Senate hearing, DeVos stoked activists fears that she will ignore education civil rights
The contentious confirmation hearing for Betsy DeVos, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for education secretary, cemented concerns among civil rights advocates that she would either ignore or dismiss the Education Department’s role as chief enforcer of the nation’s civil rights laws in schools.
DeVos declined to say during the hearing Tuesday whether she would enforce new regulations meant to hold schools accountable for educating all students. She passed up an opportunity to reassure Democrats concerned about a downsizing of the Office for Civil Rights, which is responsible for investigating allegations of discrimination in the nation’s K-12 schools and colleges.
She indicated there’s a good chance that she’ll oversee a significant shift away from the Obama administration’s approach to handling sexual assault, which has forced schools to more aggressively investigate incidents and protect survivors’ access to education. And she waffled on a federal civil rights law meant to protect students with disabilities; at one point she said it should be up to states whether to comply, and she later said that she had been “confused” about the law.
She was very clearly making no commitment to enforcing federal laws, and that’s disqualifying. That’s an unwillingness to do the job she has applied for,” said Liz King of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition of more than 200 groups. The Leadership Conference is urging senators to reject DeVos, the first time the organization has objected to an education secretary nominee.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/in-senate-hearing-devos-stoked-activists-fears-that-she-will-ignore-education-civil-rights/2017/01/18/7d930bf0-ddb9-11e6-ad42-f3375f271c9c_story.html?utm_term=.fb40b87f74ad&wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1
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