DeVos Confirmed as Education Secretary Despite Flood of Opposition
President Donald Trump's embattled Cabinet nominee squeaked through the Senate with the aid of a vote from Vice President Mike Pence.
ByLauren Camera|Education ReporterFeb. 7, 2017, at 12:31 p.m.
The Senate confirmed billionaire and school-choice advocateBetsy DeVosas U.S. secretary of education Tuesday afternoon, after Vice President Mike Pence was called to the Capitol to cast an unprecedented tie-breaking vote.
With senators locked at 50-50 – two Republicans joined Democrats to oppose the embattled nominee – it was the first time in U.S. history a vice president, who is the president of the Senate, was required to break a tie on a Cabinet member, according to theU.S. Senate Historical Office.
The noon vote capped a24-hour marathon of speechesfrom Democrats who blasted DeVos and implored Republicans to "vote their conscience." Needing just one additional GOP member to break party ranks and attempting to woo a handful of Republicans representing rural states, they hammered home the point that school choice isn't an option for many students in rural swaths of the country.
Joining Democrats in their last-ditch effort to scuttle DeVos' nomination, a cacophony of opposition poured into Senate offices from constituents around the country, while hundreds of teachers, legislative staff and senators themselves gathered outside the Capitol on Monday evening to protest President Donald Trump's education pick.
Over the last month, teachers unions,civil rights advocates, disability groups, networks of parents and others sent more than 1 million emails and made more than 40,000 telephone calls to senators urging them to oppose DeVos' nomination.
Lacking an additional GOP defector, however, DeVos was confirmed as education secretary, 51-50.
Republicans skewered Democrats for trying to hold up the nomination and that of several additionalTrump Cabinet picks, framing the minority party's opposition as bitterness over losing the presidential election.
"It seems the gridlock and opposition has less to do with the nominees themselves and more to do with the man who nominated them," said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. "They simply cannot accept the results of a democratic election."
Republicans praised the Michigan native for her advocacy work on behalf of school-choice programs, such as voucher programs that would allow families to use federal dollars to send their children to private schools. DeVos' home state is home to one of the largest charter sectors in the country, with 10 percent of its students attending charter schools.
Sen. Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican and the education secretary under President George H.W. Bush, said Tuesday he's confident DeVos will implement the recentoverhaul of No Child Left Behindthe way Congress intended, and is heartened by the fact that she's been at the forefront of the school choice debate.
"What's wrong with giving low-income Americans more choices in schools?" he asked.
GOP lawmakers also lauded Trump's pick for her outsider status, saying she is someone who is not part of the education policy ivory tower and could shake up what they consider a beleaguered public school system.
DeVos' nomination also garnered support from 22 governors and a handful of conservative education groups, including the Center for Education Reform.
DeVos quickly became more well-known upon testifying during her confirmation hearing before the Senate education committee, after which she was widely panned for exposing a worrisomelack of understanding of education policy, such as the difference between proficiency and growth and the federal government's responsibility for educating students with disabilities.
It was the most embarrassing confirmation hearing I have ever seen," said Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn. "She could not answer the most basic questions about education."
Among other gaffes, in answering a question about whether guns should be allowed in schools, DeVos posited that a school in rural Wyoming might havea gun to protect against grizzly bears. Such comments made her the butt of jokes on "Saturday Night Live" and other late-night shows.
Democrats also questioned DeVos' political donations to Republicans – includingnearly $1 millionto members of the Senate who voted for her Tuesday – and millions of dollars in investments that they charge could present conflicts of interest for a person tasked with leading the Department of Education.
Those concerns manifested themselves in the torrent of opposition to DeVos' nomination seen in recent days.
"I think all of my colleagues will agree with me that there has been an unprecedented outpouring of concern from across the country about this Cabinet nominee," said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. Murray said her office received more than 48,000 letters urging her to vote against DeVos.
Concerns and constituent outcry also forced the two Republicans – Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska – to break party ranks and oppose DeVos.
Ultimately, however, they were the only two GOP senators to do so.