Betsy DeVos, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Department of Education, was forced to fend off questions Tuesday about possible conflicts of interest, her family’s donations to antigay groups, and her lack of experience in education policy during a testy Senate nomination hearing.
DeVos also came under repeated grilling by Democrats over her ties to charter schools and her support of “school choice’’ programs that advocates fear will undermine America’s public school system.
DeVos is among the greenest of Trump’s nominees and one whom Democrats, including Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, are eager to portray as a billionaire dilettante who is incapable of running the country’s $70 billion federal education bureaucracy.
She deflected the most uneasy thrust of questioning — and surprised some Democratic senators — by distancing herself from donations given by her family to groups that support conversion therapy for gays and lesbians.
“I fully embrace equality,” said DeVos.
Source: Boston Globe