Betsy DeVos, who served as Donald Trump’s Education Secretary, is calling to abolish an agency she once led – the Department of Education.
While speaking at an event with conservative activists in Tampa, Florida, on Saturday, the former secretary of education said, according to the Florida Phoenix, that the federal Education Department should be abolished, with education decisions handed to state and local boards.
“I personally think the Department of Education should not exist,” DeVos told the crowd at the Moms for Liberty summit.
According to Ana Ceballos, state government reporter for the Miami Herald, DeVos drew a standing ovation after saying “I personally think the Department of Education should not exist.”
Betsy DeVos isn’t the only one who thinks the Department of Education should be made redundant. Rep. Lauren Boebert (CO-R) praised DeVos the next day echoing her support to “get this done.”
Boebert responded to Axios’s reporting of the former cabinet member’s call to abolish the Department Of Education in a tweet, “I signed onto legislation with @RepThomasMassie saying exactly that! We need to get this done.”
The three-day summit, which was held privately behind closed doors and not open to the press, provided training on how to create conservative majorities in the respective states of the members in attendance.
Guest speakers trained participants on how to “recruit, vet, endorse and promote” conservative candidates for their school boards. Other sessions focused on how to garner legal defense of parental rights over school-board authority, “strategic research, and ways to fight ‘gender ideology, in our schools,’ ‘social and emotional learning’ and ‘restorative justice.'”
Moms For Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice, who interviewed DeVos, said, “We love teachers here at Moms For Liberty” but she called teacher unions a “K-12 cartel.” She said Moms For Liberty seeks to separate teachers from unions, which she claimed are imposing liberal politics in classrooms.
According to NBC News, since 2000, DeVos has been a staunch supporter of private school vouchers.
