OXON HILL, Md. — Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos said Thursday that President Trump’s move to withdraw Obama-era regulations about transgender students was a critical move to reduce government overreach into an issue that should be handled by states.
“This issue was a very huge example of the Obama administration’s overreach to suggest a one-sized-fits-all federal government approach, top-down approach, to issues that are best dealt with and solved at the personal level, the local level,” DeVos said at the Conservative Political Action Conference. “It’s our job … to provide students, parents, and teachers with more flexibility around how education is delivered and how that education is experienced, and to protect and preserve personal freedoms.”
In a statement Wednesday night, DeVos said, “there is no immediate impact to students by rescinding this guidance,” because a federal injunction was issued last summer that prevented President Obama’s Education Department from enforcing part of the regulations.
Under Obama, the Education Department sought to mandate by federal guidance that all public schools had to allow transgender students to use the restroom that matches their gender identity, and threatened to pull federal financial aid from schools that didn’t follow that guidance.
Jason Russell is the contributors editor for the Washington Examiner.
