On Jan. 31, 2017, Betsy DeVos was approved by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) to serve as Secretary of Education in President Trump’s administration. HELP voted 12-11 along party lines to allow DeVos to serve. DeVos must be confirmed by the full senate first before she may serve as Secretary of Education.
DeVos is controversial within both education circles and politics in Michigan, her home state. She is well-known for her advocacy of school choice and voucher programs, which she argues will allow parents and students to participate in making more choices than the current “monopoly” of public school. Critics and Democrats claim that the voucher system is an effort to privatize public education. During the committee hearing, many Democrats questioned her qualifications. Sen. Al Franken (D- MN) called her committee hearing “lacking in any knowledge about policy in public education.”
Several other Democratic leaders, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), stand staunchly opposed to DeVos. Many teachers unions oppose her as well.
Several Republican senators see DeVos’s school choice advocacy as a reason to vote for her nomination. Tim Scott (R-SC) says DeVos’s nomination is about “a generation of kids who are caught in under-performing schools.”
During the committee hearing, several left-leaning senators, notably Bernie Sanders (I-VT), questioned DeVos on her wealth and prior donations to the GOP while she was chairwoman of the Michigan Republican Party. Some groups have called for senators to recuse themselves if she donated to their campaigns.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) both said that they will not vote for DeVos on the Senate floor. This makes DeVos’s confirmation vote a potential 50-50 vote if the rest of the Senate votes along party lines, as the committee did. In the case of a tie, Vice President Mike Pence (R) will break the tie with his vote.
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