Donald Trump's Education Secretary pick thinks guns are needed in school because of bears

Donald Trump's pick for Education Secretary attended her Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday.

She said that local authorities should decide whether guns should be barred from American schools.

She was questioned by Senator Chris Murphy on her reasoning.

Here's the transcript:

Murphy:

Do you think guns have any place in or around schools?

DeVos:

That is best left to locales and states to decide. If the underlying question is...

Murphy:

You can't say definitively today that guns shouldn't be in schools?

DeVos:

I will refer back to Senator Enzi and the school he was talking about in Wyoming.

I think probably there, I would imagine that there is probably a gun in the schools to protect from potential grizzlies.

Grizzlies.

Picture: Getty

Murphy continued:

Murphy:

If President Trump moves forward with his plan to ban gun free school zones, will you support that?

DeVos:

I will support what the president-elect does.

If the question is around gun violence and the results of that, please know that my heart bleeds and is broken for those families that have lost any individual due to gun violence.

Murphy:

I look forward to working with you, but I also look forward to you coming to Connecticut to talk about the role of guns in schools.

DeVos, a billionaire school-choice advocate, has been roundly criticised by Democrats for her perceived lack of support for public schools.

She was grilled by Senator Al Franken on the issue of testing for growth or for proficiency - an issue she didn't seem to appreciate the nuances of:

She also stumbled over Senator Tim Kaine's line of questioning about whether schools that receive federal funding should comply with the Individuals with Disabilities Eucation Act.

Having said...

I think that’s a matter best left to the states.

... She later responded in a follow-up question (Asking whether she was aware that IDEA was a federal law she would need to enforce in the role) that she had been confused, and that federal laws must be followed.

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