Trump Education Secretary Betsy DeVos stuck to her talking points and refused to give straight answers in a tense and at times outright contentious House appropriations subcommittee hearing on Tuesday. Democratic Reps. Barbara Lee, Katherine Clark, Rosa DeLauro, and Mark Pocan laid waste to DeVos’ talking points, with Lee at one point concluding a series of questions on racial disparities in school discipline by saying “Madam Secretary, you just don’t care much about civil rights of black and brown children. This is horrible.”
Lee reached that point after DeVos refused, repeatedly, to acknowledge that a $1 million cut to the Education Department’s civil rights office demonstrated a lack of commitment to civil rights. And refused, repeatedly, to acknowledge the fact that “For the same infraction, black and brown students are expelled at a much higher rate. That’s what you call racial bias and racism,” and then—not having acknowledged the root issue—couldn’t seem to understand why, with that kind of disparity, students of color might have something to fear from armed teachers. Finally, it was when DeVos blamed Senate Democrats for not confirming enough underlings for her to be able to answer a letter on school segregation that Lee sent nine months ago that Lee called out DeVos’ lack of caring about civil rights of black and brown children.
When it came to states challenging things DeVos supports, like predatory school lenders, DeVos was all about federal supremacy over the states. But when it came to things DeVos does not support, like federal civil rights protections extending into private schools that get government money, she insisted it was a state-level question that she had nothing to do with. As for the school safety commission she is supposed to lead so that Donald Trump can delay on questions of gun laws, she claimed to feel a sense of urgency, but just couldn’t possibly say when it might start its work. That commission, by the way, will have four members, all of them Trump Cabinet members.
DeVos was a talking points machine, relentlessly on message—with the small problem that her message is so robotic, downright Rubio-esque, that it’s easy for Democrats to lay waste to it, highlighting her moment-to-moment contradictions and her refusal to give real answers to direct questions.
This, though, may have been her most revealing moment. Asked to revisit her admission on 60 Minutes that she hasn’t visited any low-performing schools, DeVos said “I think it would be important to visit some poor performing schools. I think the question is: will they let me in?”