David McCormick joins Betsy DeVos at Moms for Liberty event in Nazareth
Educational and political hot topics were served up at a “fireside chat” by the Northampton County chapter of Moms for Liberty. Republican Senate candidate David McCormick and Betsy DeVos, former United States secretary of education, discussed school-related issues including Title IX, student loan forgiveness and thoughts on the scourge of “wokeness” in school.
“In the pursuit of all these ideological objectives, our school systems have lost touch with the very basis of America, in my opinion,” McCormick told the audience. “There’s no incremental way to little-by-little fix this. This is a broken system that needs radical change and radical leadership to get things back on track and school choice or other things.”
The landmark 1972 legislation was originally passed to prohibit discrimination “on the basis of sex” in educational programs and other activities that receive federal government funding. The Obama administration expanded the interpretation of those protections to cover assigned sex, gender identity and transgender status. Since then, battle lines around Title IX have divided Democrats and Republicans, often fiercely.
The new guidance identified sexual assault as another type of discrimination, requiring schools to take a greater role in prevention and punishment. This language added protects for victims from further harassment, including providing them with confidentiality, which Republicans have criticized as taking away the ability of the accused to defend themselves.
While serving as secretary of education, DeVos “did away with the Title IX guidance that the Obama administration set forth, which stripped college students of their due process rights,” said Aly Warner, chair of the Northampton County chapter of Moms for Liberty, who moderated the discussion.