DeVos looks likely to be confirmed as the nation’s next secretary of education Tuesday, but she evidently had time for one more controversy following her disastrous confirmation hearing earlier this month. The Washington Post reports that, in written answers she submitted to questions from senators, DeVos “appears to have used several sentences and phrases from other sources without attribution—including from a top Obama administration civil rights official.”
Parts of the nominee’s answers were reportedly similar to language used by the educational leadership group ASCD. “In other instances, answers that DeVos submitted ... used text verbatim from federal statutes and Education Department materials without direct quotation,” the Post reports.
In fact, these errors pale in comparison to previous Trump plagiarism controversies. Melania Trump famously lifted passages of her Republican National Convention speech from one of Michelle Obama’s. Would-be administration official Monica Crowley bowed out after revelations that she plagiarized both in a book and her Ph.D. dissertation.
Crowley’s chronic problem is all her own. The DeVos debacle—like the Melania Trump mess—says more about the shoddy, slapdash culture surrounding this president than anything else.