Betsy DeVos: Education 'has not been at the top' of Trump priorities

By Michael Stratford
“Education clearly has not been at the top of his list of priorities to address directly, but he has been very supportive of all the work that we’ve done,” DeVos said.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said Wednesday that education has not been a main agenda item for President Donald Trump but that he’s been supportive of her agency’s work.

“Education clearly has not been at the top of his list of priorities to address directly, but he has been very supportive of all the work that we’ve done,” DeVos said in an interview with Denver radio station KDMT.

“I have a great relationship with the president,” she said. “And he has been very supportive of and encouraging of all of the initiatives that we’ve undertaken.”

DeVos’ relationship with Trump was thrust into the spotlight earlier this year after the controversy over proposed funding cuts for the Special Olympics. DeVos publicly defended the administration’s proposal for days until Trump suddenly reversed course, declaring that he had “overridden my people.”

Earlier this month, Trump appeared to side with West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice in the governor's rift with DeVos and GOP legislators over charter schools and education savings account programs in the state.

And earlier this week, leaked Trump transition team vetting documents posted by Axios noted DeVos’ past opposition to Trump as a candidate during the 2016 election.

In the radio interview, DeVos also weighed in on the proposal that 2020 presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) announced this week that calls for canceling all $1.6 trillion of outstanding student loan debt.

“It’s very ill-conceived for one thing,” she said, saying she’s troubled by “the notion that two people out of every three in this country would underwrite the student debt for the one-third that have taken on the debt.”

The Sanders plan would also “not acknowledge all the students who are dutifully paying off their student loans and the ones who’ve paid them off,” DeVos said.

DeVos said that there is an issue with rising level of student loan debt. She pointed to the Education Department’s efforts to help prospective students make more informed choices about the programs and colleges they choose.

The department is in the process of making public the earnings and debt levels of graduates of each academic program at the nation’s colleges and universities.