DeVos Taking Down Obama Legacy
As Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos has advanced the Trump Administration mantra with regards to reversing or removing Obama Administration’s policies.
From dropping protections for transgender students to fostering a friendlier climate for for-profit colleges, DeVos has made an immediate mark.
US Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos came into the Education Department with a bold vision: that parents should be able to send their kids to school wherever they wanted, by way of government-funded vouchers.Nine months later, she’s made little progress on that goal. But her Education Department has made other, quieter changes that affect millions of students.
Many of those changes involve rolling back Obama-era regulations. It’s now harder for recent graduates of for-profit colleges to get their loans forgiven. Transgender students know the federal government isn’t backing them up as they fight to use the facilities that match their gender identity rather than the sex assigned to them at birth. And on college campuses, survivors of sexual assault wonder how seriously the Education Department is taking their claims.
So while Congress rejected DeVos’s proposed cuts of $9 billion to the Education Department, and with it, her strategy to implement school choice programs nationwide, it doesn’t mean she’s powerless. By rescinding Obama-era policies, DeVos has made an immediate mark.
A lack of protection for transgender students
M.S. is a 13-year-old girl from Virginia who loves makeup, hanging out with her friends, and keeping up her Snapchat streaks. She considers Jackie Kennedy and Hillary Clinton her role models, calling them “boss ladies,” and dreams of someday moving to California, going to UCLA, and becoming a makeup artist like her favorite YouTube and Instagram stars.
