Betsy DeVos and the Department of Education Get Sued for Abandoning Discrimination Complaints

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June 20, 2018

By Angela Helm, theRoot.com

U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVosPhoto: Win McNamee (Getty Images)

The NAACP is once again taking it to the courts, this time filing a federal lawsuit against Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and her Department of Education for abandoning civil-rights-enforcement regulations and dismissing hundreds of complaints….

Friday, the organization joined with the National Federation of the Blind and the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates to file the suit against DeVos and the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.

“Betsy DeVos and the Department of Education have determined that civil rights no longer matter. They’ve decided to abandon DOE’s Office of Civil Rights responsibility to investigate racial, gender or disability discrimination complaints,” NAACP spokesperson Malik Russell told The Root…

DeVos, who has no experience as an educator, nor any experience in education, has been supportive of school choice, school-voucher programs and charter schools. She has been embattled and embarrassing since her contentious confirmation hearings last year. The billionaire was chosen by President Donald Trump after Jerry Falwell Jr. turned down the Cabinet post and is sister to Blackwater founder Erik Prince, who reportedly brokered a secret meeting in Seychelles establishing a back channel between Trump and Vladimir Putin…

“It’s important for people to realize how the racism and rhetoric emanating from the White House is seeping its way into law and policy, and this arbitrary change is just one more example of where Trump is taking the nation,” Russell says.

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Read a copy of the complaint here (pdf).

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