Education Secretary Betsy DeVos Elizabeth (Betsy) Dee DeVosNEA president says Azar and DeVos should resign over school reopening guidance The Hill's 12:30 Report - Presented by Facebook - You might want to download TikTok now Former DeVos chief of staff joins anti-Trump group MORE on Sunday seemed to struggle to explain why public schools in her home state of Michigan have performed poorly despite school choice policies she’s championed.

“In places where there is a lot of choice that’s been introduced, Florida for example, the studies show that where there’s a large number of students that opt to go to a different school or different schools, the traditional public schools actually, the results get better as well,” DeVos said during an interview on CBS's “60 Minutes.”

“Now, has that happened in Michigan?” host Lesley Stahl asked. “Have the public schools in Michigan gotten better?”

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“I don’t know. Overall — I can’t say overall that they have all gotten better."

“The whole state is not doing well,” Stahl interjected.

DeVos, who has long been an advocate of promoting school choice initiatives, acknowledged public schools in Michigan need to do better.

She added that she has not "intentionally visited" underperforming institutions to learn why they are struggling.

DeVos, a Republican mega-donor, was a controversial pick to lead the Department of Education due to her support for charter schools and tuition vouchers that use public funds. She was barely approved as the nominee to lead the department, with Vice President Pence casting the tie-breaking vote in her favor.

The White House announced Sunday that DeVos will chair a federal commission on school safety. The panel will include local, federal and school officials, and will assess best practices for preventing future school shootings before making recommendations to the president.