Heidi Tran – Page 89 – * Failed Pols

As U.S. Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos has a civil rights record that is either despicable or stellar, depending on whom you ask. Like other members of Trump’s cabinet, one of Betsy DeVos’ chief goals appears to be to systematically reverse Obama-era legislation, as well as other established civil rights policies.

Here are just four out of many of Betsy DeVos’ notable acts regarding civil rights in American schools:

- At the beginning of her tenure as Education Secretary, DeVos recommended hefty spending cuts to the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights. The proposed reductions included cutting approximately 40 jobs, part of a $3.8 million reduction. (Congress, even though it is controlled by DeVos’ party, voted against DeVos’ recommendations and instead increased funding for the agency.)

- Not long after Betsy DeVos was at the helm, the Office for Civil Rights drafted a memo to agency investigators that proved to be the beginning of a trend in the agency’s loosening approach to civil rights enforcement. The memo told investigators that instead of looking at “systemic bias” when investigating a claim of racial discrimination, they were to make swift (and likely insufficiently researched) judgments on individual cases.

- The Office for Civil Rights has opted to place less consideration on Obama-era thinking that schools should be held accountable when educational or disciplinary outcomes vary by race. The agency may repeal a directive aimed at school districts to study whether African American students receive more harsh discipline than other students do. The agency also put a two-year delay on a policy that would ensure that students of color are not channeled disproportionately into special education programs. (Why this avoidance, nay, prevention, of fact-finding?)

- DeVos seeks to diminish federal authority over schools, placing more oversight in the hands of state and local governments. As with the healthcare policies proposed by Congress that hid behind “states’ rights,” this could almost certainly mean disaster for both education in general, and for civil rights. (Would schools in states where the Confederate flag is largely supported make fair and ethical decisions about racial discrimination against their students?)

“We are law enforcement officials, not advocates or social-justice people,” said Assistant Secretary of Education for Civil Rights Kenneth Marcus.

We should all let that sink in. Betsy DeVos’ appointee to help run the civil rights agency of the Department of Education – the office that oversees civil rights violations and was designed to enforce justice in such cases – has said “We are not advocates or social-justice people.”

The Check In: Betsy DeVos’ Rollback of Civil Rights | Late Night with Seth Myers [2018-07-24]

Black congresswoman visibly annoyed as Betsy DeVos struggles to answer basic civil rights questions | The Daily News [2018-05-22]

The greatest of policy failures are those that fail families – particularly children – such as the recent policy hastily enacted by the Trump administration that has resulted in the separation of hundreds of migrant families who may never be reunited.

Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy required that those attempting to cross into the U.S. from Mexico be detained, their children separated from them and held in detention facilities. U.S. District judge Dana Sabraw ordered the Trump administration to reunite the migrant families by July 26, 2018. (July 10 was the deadline for children under five, and only 38 families out of 102 were reunited), yet the deadline has passed, and roughly 700 migrant children remain separated from their parents.

The Trump administration, however, claims that it has met the goal, reuniting all “eligible” migrant familes. The 711 migrant children who remain separated from their families, it says, are “ineligible” to be returned to them for one reason or another.

Some of the migrant parents have red flags on their background checks, and others were held in criminal custody so weren’t eligible to be reunited with their children. For at least 431 children, though, according to the Independent, their parents either left the U.S. without their children, or were deported. The parents of roughly 120 additional children allegedly “waived reunification” by signing documents that they may have not fully understood.

According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), many of the migrant parents reported not fully comprehending what they were signing, or being coerced into signing the waivers. Some said they were told that signing the papers would expedite being reunited with their children. Others said they were threatened with the possibility of never seeing their children again if they didn’t sign.

In short, the Trump administration put a poorly-thought-out policy in place without a backup plan. When a U.S. District judge called them out on it and ordered them to reunite the affected migrant families, it became apparent that the administration had neglected to closely track the parents and their children after they were separated. With the threat of missing their legal deadline for reunification, it’s speculated that they made another hasty decision – this time to cover their sloppiness by conveniently having the immigrant parents waive their rights to being reunited with their families. Thus, the Trump administration can neatly say that it met the deadline to reunite all “eligible” migrant families.

Trump administration says 711 children can’t be reunited with parents by deadline | CBS Evening New [2018-07-26]

DHS: All eligible separated children reunited with parents | Fox News [2018-07-27]

Author: Heidi Tran

Betsy DeVos: Dismantling Civil Rights Policy in Education Since 2017

Failure to Reunite 711 Migrant Children with Their Parents