Betsy DeVos Believes 'School Choice' Includes Schools Choosing to Report Undocumented Students to ICE

By Prachi Gupta  |  May 24, 2018 | 2:19pm
Politics

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, a woman who supports arming teachers with guns and stripping protections for victims of sexual assault, also believes that schools should be able to decide whether or not to report undocumented students to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. This is what the Trump administration means by “school choice,” I guess.

When Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) asked DeVos whether faculty should report undocumented immigrants to federal authorities at the House Education and the Workforce Committee on Tuesday, DeVos essentially responded with a shrug.

“These issues are state and local issues to be addressed and dealt with,”she said. “That’s a school decision. It’s a local community decision,” she said, emphasizing that “we have laws and we also are compassionate.”

DeVos, who has very little understanding of the basic contours of what her job requires, also appears ignorant of the 1982 Supreme Court case that ruled that students have a right to a public school education regardless of immigration status.

The Hill reports that Democrats will hold a press conference on Thursday to address DeVos’s dangerous and irresponsible comments. The law, Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva said, “basically said schools are free and public, you don’t check documentation, that these are kids and they’re entitled to a free public education. And nothing beyond that, it’s as explicit as it can be.” He added, “There’s no nuance, there’s no reading between the lines.”

Another Arizona Democrat, Rep. Ruben Gallego, taking the words right out of my mouth, said it more explicitly: “Yeah, she’s an idiot.”

 
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