DeVos: I'd Be Fine Ditching the Education Department
Opponents tried to block the confirmation of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and would gladly see her booted from that Cabinet position.
Turns out, DeVos would be good with leaving as well.
"It would be fine with me to have myself worked out of a job," DeVos told Axios in an interview published Friday. "But I'm not sure that – I'm not sure that there will be a champion movement in Congress to do that."
To be clear, DeVos was responding to a question about what the role of the federal government in education should be, and she wouldn't be the first member of the executive branch to float doing away with the Department of Education altogether.
President Ronald Reagan, for example, called for abolishing the department, which was first established under President Jimmy Carter in 1979. And a call to do so has not been uncommon among GOP presidential hopefuls.
In fact, President Donald Trump – who nominated DeVos to her position – said in his 2015 book "Great Again: How to Fix Our Crippled America" that "if we don't eliminate [the department] completely, we certainly need to cut its power and reach."
Though DeVos basically stated she'd be OK with jettisoning the department, she also said that the federal government, at least in the past, has had a legitimate role to play in education.
"When we had segregated schools and when we had a time when, you know, girls weren't allowed to have the same kind of sports teams – I mean, there have been important inflection points for the federal government to get involved," she said in the Axios interview, after stating that "in some of the areas around protecting students and ensuring safe environments for them, there is a role to play."
She added, though, that she "can't think of any" remaining education issues like Betsy DeVos: I'd Be 'Fine' if We Could Ditch the Education Department | National News | US News: