[Watch] Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos Forced to Agree Federal Dollars Shouldn’t Fund LGBTQ Discrimination In Schools

By: Paul Goldberg, Staff Writer

When Secretary of Education Besy Devos appeared before the House appropriations subcommittee, she was met with a grilling from Rep. Katherine Clark who has for over a year pressed the Devos to say yes or no on whether Federal dollars should be used for private schools that have policies to discriminate against the LGBTQ community. For over a year Devos side stepped the question.

Well this time around things were different as Rep. Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) was back in action again to press Secretary DeVos on the issue! This year Clark managed to get Devos to admit that schools should not be eligible for the money if they have policies that discriminate against the LGBTQ community.

The reason why congresswoman Clark has been on Devos over this matter is because of the Department of Education’s 2019 budget proposal which calls for giving over $1 billion to school choice initiatives.

Policies such as this are normally operated on a state and local level however Devos has been fighting for this type of funding for private schools for years and now she feels that in her position, she can make it a reality.

“I cannot find a single state that protects LGBT students within the states’ voucher anti-discrimination laws,” said Rep. Clark on Tuesday March 21’s hearing. “State dollars flow to private schools that are allowed to discriminate. I couldn’t find any case where that didn’t happen.” said Clark.

What caught the media’s attention was Clark’s sharp comments towards the secretary of education and judging by DeVos facial expressions, she was absorbing it all!