Certain things President-elect Joe Biden says really resonates with me, among them is that we will have a new U.S. Department of Education secretary. Hopefully, this will be a person who has taught in a public school classroom. Betsy DeVos never should have been named head of the U.S. Department of Education.

Soon after Donald Trump was elected president in 2016, he appointed DeVos to the cabinet position. During her confirmation hearing, she proved to educators what they already knew — she was not qualified to fill this important office, and for the first time in the nation’s history, a vice president’s (in this case, Mike Pence) vote was necessary to approve the nominee.

During the ensuing four years as she tried to figure out the major responsibilities of her office, educators throughout the nation stood in fear of what she and Trump were planning.

The major activity DeVos is known for is her promotion of vouchers and charter schools, which proved to be destructive to public school education.

DeVos lost was when she was sued in 2017 for violating federal law for student loan cancellation in defrauding college students. Around this time, Trump-DeVos made deep federal budget cuts in public education programs.

As an educator, I, and my colleagues, were dismayed by other education events that occurred under DeVos. Trump’s administration rescinded the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA. Fortunately, in 2017, the United States Supreme Court ruled against this action.

One of the education cuts DeVos tried to defend before a House Committee was by cutting $7 billion from special education programs (music, sports, art) and having larger classes. This plan truly upset teachers and parents whose children were in elementary schools.

As late as May 2020, DeVos excluded students in need under the $6 billion CARES Act, which provided college students with food, rent and other expenses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

To my knowledge, there never has been any plan to make schools safer for students and faculty. Trump and DeVos continue to urge school reopenings as the coronavirus cases keep surging.

Along with my colleagues, we believe Mr. Biden will appoint a person with knowledge of education (his wife is an educator) and his vice president, Kamala Harris, is a champion for education.

Dr. Dorys C. Grover

Pendleton