WASHINGTON (AP) – Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said Tuesday that schools receiving federal money should follow federal law, but she would not commit to banning discrimination against LGBT students in private schools.
The Trump administration’s budget proposal significantly cuts funding for teacher training and after-school programs and student financial aid, while boosting funding for charter schools and vouchers that parents can use to send children to private schools. Critics fear that private religious schools may discriminate against students based on sexual orientation, gender identity, religion or disability.
DeVos was asked during a Senate subcommittee hearing on Tuesday whether such discrimination would be allowed. DeVos said: “Schools that receive federal funds must follow federal law, period.”
But when Sen. Jeff Merkley, a Democrat from Oregon, said federal law is unsettled on LGBT discrimination and pressed DeVos to elaborate, she indicated that was not her call to make: “On areas where law is unsettled, this department is not going to be issuing decrees; that is a matter for Congress and the courts to settle.”
“I don’t support discrimination in any form,” DeVos added.