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Member of the senate committee on health, education, labor and pensions. senator, what was your impression of what this nominee does and doesn't know about this fairly significant landmark piece of civil rights education. >> chris, it's nice to be with you tonight. you know, education and access to quality education for all our kids is really the foundation of our democracy. in my family, that includes making sure that both of my children, including making sure both of my children had access to quality education and our now adult son ben happens to have very severe and pervasive physical disab...

Senator tim kaine and senator maggie hassan. >> should all schools that receive -- >>f schools -- >> -- taxpayer fund being required to meet the requirements of the individuals with disabilities in education? >> i think that's a matter best left to the states. >> so some states might be good to kids with disabilities and other states might not so good and then what? people can just move around the country if they don't like how their kids are being treated? >> i think that's an issue that's best left to the states. >> i want to go back to the individuals with disabilities in education act. tha...

School. and that's the kind of opportunity we all want for all of our children. and before the i.d.ea. was passed, children like my son were often put in institutions where they didn't have access to education, people assumed or stereotyped them believing they couldn't learn and when you think about the importance of that civil rights law to children like my son and children around the country it was really concerning to me that ms. devos seemed so unfamiliar with it. and problems with the voucher system she has supported has had in honoring the i.d.e.a. >> what do you say to people that say t...

I wanted to make sure she was committed to enforcing civil rights laws that protect all children so that they have access to education and i was very concerned that she seemed confused or unfamiliar with the fact the i.d.e.a. is a federal law she would be charged with enforcing and i think it's appropriate that we make sure that the country's top education officer really does understand the full obligations in the way our public education system works. i was very concern she was so unfamiliar with such a basic thing and that goes to concerns a lot of us have that ms. devos does not have experi...

>> there is nothing obscure to my family about the i.d.e.a. there is nothing obscure to most educators i know about the importance of educating all our children what i was trying to get at when i talked with ms. devos at the hearing was my concern about the fact that the voucher programs that she had supported made children with disabilities if they were to receive a voucher like kids without disabilities do it made those kids sign away their rights under the i.d.e.a. so i thought it was very important to get her perspective on why she thought that was okay and whether she would, as secretary ...