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

Previous Secretary of Schooling Betsy Devos thinks that the division she the moment led should really be abolished. 

Devos, who spent four many years as the Education secretary throughout the Trump administration, made the remarks at the inaugural Moms for Liberty summit on Saturday, according to the Florida Phoenix. 

“I personally believe the Department of Schooling should really not exist,” Devos instructed the mainly conservative crowd in Tampa, Fla.

Devos was a top proponent of “education freedom” for the duration of her time in office, advertising vouchers to permit families to select their children’s faculty.

In a speech in 2020, she reported, “I combat towards any individual who would have governing administration be the guardian to absolutely everyone.”

Mothers for Liberty is a conservative group that rose to nationwide prominence for its objection to young children putting on deal with masks at faculty in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The community information outlet also noted that summit attendees ended up offered strategies on how to recruit, promote and endorse conservative university board candidates.

Devos is not the initially conservative figure to recommend nixing the federal company billed with overseeing faculties. A group of GOP Household associates backed a monthly bill previous yr trying to find sought to abolish the Office of Schooling. 

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

“Schools should be accountable,” Massie claimed in a statement at the time. “Parents have the ideal to opt for the most acceptable academic prospect for their young children, including home faculty, general public school, or private college.”

Devos’s remarks come as faculties have come to be a battleground for politicized culture wars, with Democrats and Republicans battling over challenges these types of as crucial race principle, LGBTQ rights and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. 

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) campaigned on a pledge to give mother and father a louder voice in faculties, though Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) drew countrywide blowback with his signing of a invoice barring lecturers from discussing sexual orientation or gender id in kindergarten by third grade.