'Bye-bye Betsy DeVos': Bernie Sanders, AOC take shots at DeVos in her final month as Education Secretary

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. On Tuesday, Ms DeVos called progressive proposals for higher education to be freely available and proposals from the Biden administration to forgive student debt "a socialist takeover of higher education." What we do next in education policy — and in public policy writ large — will either break our already fragile economy, or it will unleash an age of achievement and prosperity, the likes of which we’ve never seen.” Ms DeVos is less critical of government spending when it comes to her brother, Erik Prince, who formerly ran the mercenary group Blackwater and attempted to worm his way back into the military-industrial complex under Donald Trump's administration. It is unclear what Ms DeVos is challenging when she calls proposals for free public higher education "socialist," as she has previously advocated for billions of taxpayer dollars to be used as scholarships allowing parents to send their children to private schools. Ms DeVos' main education plan during her time in the position has been pushing "educational freedom," which is a catch phrase for government subsidy of private charter schools.