Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos Won't Promise Extra Privileges to LGBT Activists

Peter LaBarbera : May 30, 2017
LifeSiteNews.com

"The bottom line is we believe that parents are the best equipped to make choices for their children's schooling and education decisions..." -Betsy DeVos

(Washington, DC)—[LifeSiteNews] A U.S. congressional hearing last week provided a stark lesson on how "LGBT anti-discrimination" laws are used to crush freedom of people to live according to their faith-informed conscience. (Screengrab: Betsy DeVos/via LifeSiteNews.com)

Trump's education secretary, Betsy DeVos, was testifying at a House Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on the topic of school choice and vouchers—federal grants provided to the states to be dispersed in a way that allows parents to choose the best school for their children, regardless of whether it is public or private, religious or secular.

Championing school choice, especially for disadvantaged poor children shackled to failing public schools, is DeVos' calling in life and the reason Donald Trump picked her to run the Education Department. By appointing her, Trump defied the hysterical complaints of "educrat" elites and the radically pro-LGBT teachers' unions, who view DeVos as an urgent threat to their agenda and their monopoly on education policy.

At the hearing, DeVos was set up with hostile questioning from Democratic Rep. Katherine Clark, D-Mass. The following exchange between them ensued, as reported by the Trump-hating Huffington Post:

During a testy exchange in a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing, Rep. Katherine Clark (D-MA) told DeVos about Lighthouse Christian Academy, a private school in Indiana that receives state voucher money but denies admission to students from families where there is "homosexual or bisexual activity" or someone "practicing alternate gender identity." Clark asked DeVos, whose budget seeks a $250 million increase for projects that include vouchers for private schools, if she would step in if that Indiana school applied for such federal funding.

DeVos replied by saying she supports giving flexibility to states.

"For states who have programs that allow for parents to make choices, they set up the rules around that," she said.

Clark, who appeared baffled, pressed DeVos on whether she could see any situation in which she would overrule a school requesting federal voucher money—if the school discriminated against students based on sexual orientation, race or special needs, for example.

"The Office of Civil Rights and our Title IX protections are broadly applicable across the board," DeVos said. "But when it comes to parents making choices on behalf of their students..."

"This isn't about parents making choices. This is about use of federal dollars," Clark interrupted. "You would put the state flexibility over our students?"

"I think a hypothetical―" DeVos said.

"It's not a hypothetical," Clark snapped. "It's a real school."

As they talked over each other, the chairman stepped in and gave DeVos a chance to fully answer Clark, whose time was up.

"The bottom line is we believe that parents are the best equipped to make choices for their children's schooling and education decisions," DeVos said. "States and local communities are best equipped to make these decisions and framework"...

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