For Release: January 8, 2021
Contact: Dorie Turner Nolt, 404.861.1127, dturnernolt@all4ed.org
Washington, D.C. — “In the nearly four years that Betsy DeVos was U.S. Secretary of Education, she gutted civil rights protections for students, left schools to fend for themselves against a global pandemic, and worked tirelessly to dismantle the very department she was hired to run. She stayed quiet while her administration locked children in cages and openly supported white supremacists and dangerous conspiracy theories. The time for her to stand up against President Trump was long ago, not two weeks before her gig was up. I look forward to January 20 when we can begin rebuilding the promise of this country and the work of the U.S. Department of Education to help ensure that every child has opportunities to thrive and we can, most especially, see in our leaders great models of hope, which has been so absent during the past four years. I also look forward to working alongside the next education secretary, Dr. Miguel Cardona, to dismantle systems of oppression and tackle long-standing inequities in education that have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic for our most vulnerable students. Our country needs leaders who fill us with hope, not despair.”
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Deborah S. Delisle is the president and CEO of the Alliance for Excellent Education and served as Assistant Secretary of Elementary and Secondary Education from 2012 to 2015.
The Alliance for Excellent Education (All4Ed) is a Washington, DC–based national policy, practice, and advocacy organization dedicated to ensuring that all students, particularly those underperforming and those historically underserved, graduate from high school ready for success in college, work, and citizenship. All4ed.org