U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos’s visit to Adams County school to draw protests

Melissa Siegler | Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune

ADAMS-FRIENDSHIP- The U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos will visit an Adams County school Tuesday.

She also will be in the Fox Valley Tuesday for a stop at Fox Valley Technical College's public safety training center.

She will be joined by U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar,Wisconsin's first lady Tonette Walker and members of the Federal Commission on School Safety for a tour of Adams-Friendship Middle School to learn how the school has incorporated statewide behavioral health framework using a grant that was awarded to the school in 2014, according to the school district.

DeVos was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in February 2017 to head the Education Department. Since that time, DeVos’s policies have been met with criticism, including her proposal to roll back President Barack Obama's Title IX guidance for sexual assault on college campuses and reform it to more strongly consider the rights of the accused.

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Members of the group Adams County Wisconsin Indivisible, a group started by former congressional staffers after the 2016 election in opposition to the President Donald Trump's administration's policies, plan to protest DeVos at the event, according to group member Vickie Hodge.

"We don’t agree with much of her positions on the education issue, in particular she is pretty strong on privatization of education if you look at her history," Hodge said. "We believe public tax dollars should be spent for public education."

She said group members are going to exercise their First Amendment right and make their voices heard.

The event, beginning at 11:30 a.m., is closed to the public, but people can watch live on the U.S. Department of Education's Youtube channel.

DeVos' visit to the FVTC training center in Grand Chute will begin about 8:30 a.m.