WASHINGTON- Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is set to testify before Congress on Tuesday, and will likely face questions from lawmakers about school safety in the wake of another deadly shooting.
DeVos’ return to Capitol Hill comes less than a week after the deadly shooting at Santa Fe High School in Texas that left 10 people dead. In the wake of the shooting, DeVos released a statement, saying in part that “no student should have to experience the trauma suffered by so many today and in similar events prior. We simply cannot allow this trend to continue.”
She also said that the school safety commission she oversees, which was created in the wake of the Parkland, Florida shooting, is “working to identify proven ways to prevent violence and keep our students safe at school.”
DeVos’s Capitol Hill testimony Tuesday is her fifth time testifying before congressional lawmakers and comes on the heels of a trip to New York in which she was criticized for not visiting any public schools. Instead, DeVos toured two Orthodox Jewish schools and spoke in support of public funding for religious schools.
She has also faced questions over her department’s handling of investigations into for-profit schools. The New York Times reported earlier this month that DeVos wound down an investigative team at the Department of Education that had been established during the Obama administration, effectively ending inquiries into for-profit colleges where some of the agency’s top staffers previously worked. The Education Department’s spokesperson did not respond to CNN’s request for comment for that story.
New Jersey’s attorney general Gurbir Grewal wrote to DeVos, the Times reported, and alleged the agency had ignored requests from the state to work on behalf of students who were defrauded by the now-bankrupt Corinthian Colleges chain.
The Education Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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