This article was published on the Council for Exceptional Children on January 8, 2021.

On Thursday night, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos submitted her resignation to President Donald Trump, effective as of today.

The letter cited Wednesday’s “violent protestors overrunning the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to undermine the people’s business” as an “inflection point” for her and the impetus for her resignation. The resignation was foreshadowed by a statement issued on Wednesday as events in the Capitol were taking place.

“The eyes of America’s children… are watching what’s unfolding in Washington today,” she remarked, adding, “The peaceful transfer of power is what separates American representative democracy from banana republics.”

The position of Secretary of Education will not be filled before the transfer of power to the Biden Administration.