Five Cabinet Nominees Who Could Affect Education
The U.S. Department of Education is not the only office with power over student-related policy.
Control of school-related issues is spread across a number governmental agencies, and President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for U.S. education secretary, Betsy DeVos, won’t be the only member of his cabinet to have a say in student-facing policy. The Michigan philanthropist and billionaire will face her Senate confirmation hearing next Tuesday, and many of her fellow nominees already have education records of their own. We examined five of the potential cabinet members who could influence America’s schools and what their past actions might mean for students around the country.
Jeff Sessions - Nominated for U.S. Attorney General
Some civil-rights groups are concerned the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights could be moved to the Department of Justice, meaning Jeff Sessions—who has an incredibly controversial record on civil rights—would oversee it. The former Alabama senator claimed in a 2009 National Review interview to have “filed 20 or 30 civil-rights cases to desegregate schools and political organizations and county commissions when [he] was a United States attorney.” However, as The Atlantic’s Adam Serwer explained, this doesn’t appear to be true. There is no evidence suggesting Sessions filed any new desegregation lawsuits or made meaningful legal contributions to integrate what are today some of the nation’s most segregated school districts.Sessions, Tillerson, Price Could Affect Education - The Atlantic:
