During the “Moms for Liberty” summit, DeVos said the federal government should be taken out of education and leave it to local and state authorities.
“I personally think the Department of Education should not exist,” said DeVos. She was greeted with applause from the members of the crowd, according to Florida Phoenix.
While DeVos acknowledged the positive impact teachers provide, including those at the conference, she decried unions representing teachers as the “K-12 cartel.”
The summit mostly focused on the ways that conservatives can get majorities during local elections for school boards, with the goal of empowering parents to exercise their rights. This group “Moms for Liberty” sprung into existence in Florida during the outbreak in opposition to children having to hide in school. The summit was a success. Different speakers taught participants how to choose and support conservative candidates for local school board elections, while other workshops taught parents on legal strategies to employ when fighting far-left agendas such as “gender ideology, in our schools,” “social and emotional learning” and “restorative justice.”
During her time in the Trump administration, DeVos was a proponent of school choice but was met with criticism after she announced a federal school choice plan that was viewed by some as a denial of the goal for school choice.
“It's wonderful that the Administration wants to advance school choice but a nationwide federal tax-credit scholarship program is the wrong way to do it,” said Lindsey Burke, director of the Heritage Foundation's Center for Education Policy. “This could open the door for further education regulations down the road that neutralize the advantages of private education as well as impede future tax reform efforts.”
“Future administrations could use a federal tax-credit scholarship to require that schools adhere to certain admissions and accountability policies,” she explained. “That would mean the federal government could further dictate testing, reporting, academic content, and even bathroom policies for all schools involved.”
