Since assuming her post as Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos and the Trump Administration haven’t stopped feeding us stories we really wish were fake news. Here are 7 ways the Higher Education system has come into the crosshairs.
1. The New Pick for Education Civil Rights Chief, Candice Jackson, Claimed Most Sexual Assault Accusations Come From Being Drunk and Then Later Breaking Up
Candice Jackson, the deputy assistant secretary of the Office Of Civil Rights, has since apologized for her unbelievable comment on the nature of campus sexual assault accusations in an interview below:
“Rather, the accusations — 90 percent of them — fall into the category of ‘we were both drunk,’ ’we broke up, and six months later I found myself under a Title IX investigation because she just decided that our last sleeping together was not quite right.”
That’s not her only qualification for the job—she’s also made it clear that she has experienced discrimination for being white, and called sexual accusers of Donald Trump “fake victims.”
2. DeVos Met With Men’s Rights Groups on Campus Assault
This isn’t a joke ― tt7789hy7three organizations secured themselves a meeting with DeVos to tell the other side of the campus assault story. One of them is The National Coalition For Men, that spends its time fighting domestic violence laws and suing all-women events. Truly a gentlemen’s org.
3. DeVos Withdrew Transgender Anti-Discrimination Guidelines from the Obama Administration
The Trump Administration withdrew another regulation that protected students against discrimination in schools based on gender and gender identity. No longer are gender non-conforming students anywhere close to being protected by Title IX or the feds. Why’d they do it? To leave it up to the states to decide. Let’s ask our friends in NC how that worked out for them...
4. The Trump/DeVos Team “Forgot” a Huge Detail When Announcing Wayne Johnson to Lead Federal Student Aid
Don’t you just hate it when you accidentally forget to mention in your White House press statement that the new guy you are bringing in to head Federal Student Aid at the US Department of Education is maybe just, like, a little bit of a CEO of a for-profit student loan provider? Yeah, me too.
5. DeVos Supported Ending the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program
Because obviously we don’t need college educated people to work in government. Especially not in positions like public school teachers. Nah b, we’re good.
6. DeVos halted 2 ED Rules That Protected Students From For-Profit Colleges Committing Fraud
DeVos and the Trump administration have said “Wellll, maybe not” to a couple of huge regulations that held for-profit schools responsible for lying about their academics and saddling unknowing students with massive debt that they’ll never earn back.
The Obama Administration instated two rules after two for-profit colleges were found to be predatorily lying to prospective students about their job placement rates and the quality of their programs. The two rules, that you can read about here, are the Gainful Employment Rule and the Borrower Defense to Repaying.
Consumer protections for loan-takers? Gone-zo. Free reign for more shadiness like Trump University? It’s open season.
They’re rewriting these rules now - Don’t hold your breath.
7. DeVos Called HBCU’s “Pioneers of School Choice”
Make it stop.
It doesn’t matter if you have a point, or if your point is good, if you can’t deliver it with an ounce of humility. HBCUs developed to serve black students because of forced segregation and an outright unwillingness to educate black people at the same institutions. Maybe DeVos got the history curriculum a lot of us had – We just skip over that slavery to segregation part reaaaal quick.
As if people didn’t already hate school choice enough. This was so unbelievably tone deaf I can’t defend it. Too bad, since real accountable public school choice is actually a progressive policy.
Jon Hebert writes on Education Policy at Students for Education Reform. Follow @jonphebert for Student Voice and Education Reform coverage.
