‘You Can’t Do That’: Betsy DeVos Whiffs When Confronted on Trump Admin’s Threat to Defund Schools
Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos squirmed during her Sunday morning media tour when asked about the Trump administration’s threat to yank funding from schools that don’t fully reopen amidst the coronavirus pandemic.
In an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash that went on for more than 20 minutes, DeVos couldn’t guarantee people wouldn’t get sick from reopening schools, nor could she articulate a comprehensive plan to facilitate a reopening according to CDC guidelines. Toward the end of the showdown, Bash switched gears to ask DeVos about how she and Trump both suggested that federal funds would be withheld from schools that don’t open up.
Bash pointed out to DeVos that “you don’t have a lot of authority” on defunding schools since most of that money comes from the state and local level. The CNN host noted that DeVos had a certain level of influence on the matter, however, so she asked “How does it help to take any money away from school districts during a pandemic?”
“There is no desire to take money away,” DeVos answered. “In fact, we want to see schools open and have been committed to ensuring the resources are there to do that…The reality is we are committed to ensuring all students and all schools have the resources necessary for kids to be able to continue learning. And where schools don’t follow through on that, parents should have the opportunity and the option to find a school that is going to open.”
Bash repeatedly asked DeVos to clarify if the threat to withhold funding was still in play, but when the Secretary of Education refused to give a yes or no, Bash shook her head and wrapped up the interview while noting “you didn’t answer the question.”
In a separate interview for Fox News Sunday, DeVos faced a similar set of challenging questions from Chris Wallace. As he brought up DeVos’ recent remarks, Wallace asked her “under what authority are you and the president going to unilaterally cut off funding — funding that has been approved from Congress — and most of the money goes to disadvantaged students or students with disabilities?”
“Secondly, isn’t cutting off funding exactly the wrong answer?” Wallace went on. “Don’t you want to spend more money to make schools safer, whether it’s with plastic shields or health checks, or various other systems?”
“If schools aren’t going to reopen and not fulfill their promise, they shouldn’t get the funds,” DeVos answered. “Then give it to the families to decide to go to a school that is going to meet that promise.”
“You can’t do that!” Wallace interjected. “I know you guys support vouchers and that’s a reasonable argument but you can’t do that unilaterally. You have to do that through Congress.”
Watch above, via CNN and Fox News Sunday.
