4 ways DeVos has been bad for public education

Betsy DeVos has been the Secretary of Education for three years, making her one of President Trump’s longest-serving Cabinet members. Can you believe it? Actually, it probably feels like it's been longer than three years. 

Here are four ways DeVos has been bad for public education in America.

#4 DeVos is trying to cut the Department of Education to the bone. 

• She's pushed to cut the Department of Education's budget by $9 billion.

• She's proposed cuts to funding for civil rights investigations, after-school and school lunch programs, and even the Special Olympics.

• She's recommended eliminating the 21st Century Community Learning Centers initiative, which provides high-quality after-school programs to students nationwide.

#3 DeVos has rolled back rules to protect women, LGBTQ students, and students of color.

• She's made it harder for victims of sexual assault to seek justice by changing campus sexual assault policies.

• Under her watch, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has become less likely to stop discrimination.

#2 DeVos has made the student debt crisis worse.

• She's made it easier for companies to engage in deceptive collection practices.

• She's made it easier for for-profit colleges to defraud students by repealing the gainful employment rule.

• She didn’t honor our commitment to 99% of the students who were enrolled in the loan forgiveness program.

#1 DeVos has diverted public funds to private schools instead of strengthening public schools.

• She's routinely proposed expanding voucher and charter programs that steal money from public schools with little track record of student success. 

• She’s proposed giving tax dollars to private schools that have discriminatory practices against LGBTQ+ students and students with special needs.

In case you forgot, Vice President Mike Pence had to cast a tie-breaking vote to confirm DeVos after she got more “no” votes than any education secretary nominee in U.S. history.