After protests, complaints, and Democratic requests for a second hearing on Betsy DeVos’ ability to head the Department of Education, the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions voted along party lines to move DeVos to a full Senate vote for confirmation. The committee voted twice after Democrats attempted to push the vote another week, but was declined. Both times Republicans voted the same, 12 to Democrat’s 11, according to The Hill and The Detroit Free Press.
There has been controversy over many of the picks President Trump has chosen for positions in his administration, but DeVos may be one of the most controversial. Videos of DeVos being questioned by committee senators at her hearing recently made their rounds on social media and in a popular clip available through NBCnews.com, DeVos told lawmakers that guns might have a place in schools “due to the threat from grizzly bears.”
In a video available through Vox.com, Senator Bernie Sanders questioned if DeVos would’ve gotten the appointment had her family not donated “hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions to the Republican Party.” DeVos said that she believed that she would have, stating she has “been working hard to be a voice for students and to empower parents to make decisions on behalf of their children.”
In the 2016 cycle the Devos family gave “nothing to Democrats and $2.7 million to Republican candidates and political action committees,” according to The Washington Post and an analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics.
Some students at the U of M recognized the name, but weren’t happy about DeVos’ potential confirmation.
“DeVos is too far removed from the public education system to be in a position of power that will have such an impact on today's youth, and consequently the future,” Sydney Trujillo, a 25-year-old third year law student, said. “She does not have even AN interest of children at heart, definitely not their BEST interest. If children are not the point of education, but executing schools like a business we are failing as a nation.”
The “Teacher Education Collective,” a group of professors from 8 different universities around the country (including the University of Michigan, the University of Washington, and Vanderbilt) wrote how “uniquely unqualified DeVos is for the highest governmental position in education” in an opinion article published by The Tennessean.
“College students for whom debt is not an abstraction, but a visceral weight casting a pall over their future prospects, should worry about someone so disconnected from their reality making decisions that directly affect their economic well-being,” the Collective wrote.
Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren said in a statement that she believed that DeVos’ nomination was “not in the best interests of the young people of America” and “It is hard to imagine a less qualified or more dangerous person to be entrusted both with our country's education policy and with a trillion-dollar student loan program.”
Despite many people’s concerns over DeVos’ qualifications, some believe that DeVos is a great candidate.
“I have worked with Mrs. DeVos on education issues in Tennessee for several years,” Tennessee State Senator Brian Kelsey wrote in another article for The Tennessean. “I know her to have both a heart for our school children and the experience to take the Department of Education to new heights.”
Senator Kelsey represents Cordova, East Memphis, and Germantown and serves on the Tennessee Senate Education Committee.
“The American people elected President Donald Trump to shake things up in Washington,” Kelsey wrote in the article. “They are tired of politicians who promise results but fail to produce them. Betsy DeVos is not a politician. She is an education leader who has given her life to helping children achieve. She’s helped many already. The Senate should vote to allow her to help them all.”
Two members of the U.S. education committee, Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, would not guarantee they would vote for DeVos again in the Senate vote despite voting for her in the committee, according to The Detroit Free Press.
It has not yet been announced when the Senate vote to confirm Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education will take place.
