Betsy Devos

Senate Panel Delays Vote On Budget Nominee

... Helber, File). FILE - In this Jan. 11, 2107 file photo, Secretary of State-designate Rex Tillerson testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The Senate is pressing. WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on developments in Congress (all times local). 6:30 p.m. The Senate Budget Committee has postponed a Wednesday morning vote on Donald Trump's pick to run the White House Budget Office. A vote scheduled on the nomination of South Carolina Rep. Mick Mulvaney has been pushed back until Thursday. A panel spokesman says the delay is because other committees have rescheduled their meetings for Wednesday after delaying tactics by Democrats. Mulvaney is a hard-liner on the budget, favoring cuts to popular benefit programs like Medicare. Trump has so far declined ...

Betsy Devos Appears Before Senate Education Committee In Confirmation Hearing

... Turner of the NPR Ed team. And Cory, let's start with what we know about De Vos' education philosophy and why that's put her at odds with so many Democrats. CORY TURNER, BYLINE: Sure, Robert. She's been scathing in her criticism of the government's ability to really improve America's education system. And she believe deeply instead in the power of the free market to do that. She has opposed teachers' unions. She in an outspoken supporter of school choice, specifically public charter schools. But also perhaps most controversially, she's a big supporter of vouchers which let parents pay for tuition at private schools and even religious schools using public school dollars. And that led to this exchange this evening - earlier this evening with Democratic Senator Patty Murray. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING). PATTY MURRAY: Can you commit to us tonight that you will not work to privatize public schools or cut a single penny from public education. DEVOS: Senator, thanks for that question. I look forward, if confirmed, to working with you to talk about how we address the needs of all parents and all students. ...

No Democrat Will Vote For Betsy Devos As Education Secretary

... urging them to vote against her, more than 1 million people have signed petitions, and hundreds of alumni and students from her alma mater, Calvin College, wrote a letter to the legislators saying she was unqualified to be education secretary. Betsy De Vos, Donald Trump's nominee for education secretary, appeared before senators at her confirmation hearing on Jan. 17, but some of her responses created more questions than they answered. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post). De Vos has received expressions of support, too, notably from former Florida governor Jeb Bush. Her supporters are also pointing to public backing from Grand Rapids Public Schools (GRPS) Superintendent Teresa Weatherall Neal.  WOOD-TV reported on emails and correspondence it had obtained on the endorsement. It said in part. The correspondence shows plans for a trip to De Vos’ confirmation hearing in Washington, D. C., paid for ...

Trump’s Education Pick Devos Clears Senate Panel, But The Move Could Carry A Price

... into the billionaire’s finances. “This nominee is being jammed through with corners being cut and with the minority being brushed aside, and I think it is absolutely wrong,” Murray said, adding that it would influence how she works with Alexander in the future. This nominee is being jammed through with corners being cut and with the minority being brushed aside, and I think it is absolutely wrong. Washington state Democratic Sen. Patty Murray. Alexander said Democrats were trying to delay a vote and asking for more vetting, even though they had already decided to vote against her. “I believe their concerns are misplaced,” Alexander said. I believe their concerns are misplaced. Tennessee Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander. Murray told Alexander she was “extremely disappointed and frustrated” by his move, saying it marked the first time that the panel had voted on a Cabinet nominee when a ranking member wanted more time to ask questions. “We have been ...

Concerned Citizens Take Formal Stand Against Betsy Devos

... Education Association Office. HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – Tuesday morning, a coalition of former teachers and concerned citizens joined some Huntsville Education Association and Alabama Education Association members in taking a petition bearing more than a thousand signatures to Sen. Richard Shelby’s office. The petition, according to Uni Serv District 2 Director Adam Keller, urged Shelby to reject Betsy De Vos’ nomination for U. S. Secretary of Education. “We are disturbed at her profound lack of experience, knowledge and qualification to serve in this role. We are very concerned about her numerous conflicts of interests. Betsy De Vos is a billionaire who has spent tremendous amounts of money to fight against the goal of excellent and equitable public education for all students,” Keller stated in a release to WHNT News 19. Keller said they also left opposition statements from NEA, NAACP, members of the evangelical community, and Republican educators with the Senator’s office. Keller also said he was the only one of the group that was allowed to enter Shelby’s office. The rest, he said, were told to stay outside. He said staff members explained to him that Sen. ...

Confirmation Of Betsy Devos Could Lead To More Baylors

... the lower standard of proof backed by the Obama administration is unfair to those accused of sexual assault. De Vos steadfastly refused to answer specific questions on the subject during her confirmation hearing. Here’s part of her exchange with Sen. Robert P. Casey (D-Pa). Casey: “I ask you, would you uphold that 2011 Title IX guidance as it relates to sexual assault on campus?”. De Vos: “Senator, I know that there’s a lot of conflicting ideas and opinions around that guidance, and if confirmed I would look forward to working with you and your colleagues and understand the range of opinions and understand the issues from the higher ed institutions that are charged with resolving these and addressing them. And I would look forward to working together to find some resolutions.”. De Vos’ answers were cold comfort to those who work with campus rape ...

Six Astonishing Things Betsy Devos Said

... “Well, I think they should. Do you agree with me. De Vos: “Well no. ”. Kaine, interrupting her, said: “You don’t agree with me.” And he moved on to another topic. [ In Senate hearing, De Vos stoked activists’ fears that she will ignore education civil rights ]. De Vos said she would review gainful employment regulations without committing to enforce them. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) asked De Vos how she planned to protect waste, fraud and abuse from for-profit universities, citing Trump University, which President-elect Donald Trump founded; he ultimately paid $25 million to settle lawsuits by students who said they were cheated. Trump said he paid the money so he could focus on getting ready to run the country. De Vos said, “If confirmed, I will certainly be very vigilant.” Warren persisted, “I’m asking how.” When De Vos said “individuals with whom” she will work in the department will ensure that federal money is properly used, Warren further dug in, and then explained to De Vos that there is actually a group of rules already on the books, the gainful ...

Democrats Request Another Hearing For Devos, Trump’s Education Pick, Before Confirmation Vote

... mounting a politically motivated attack. “The committee has received Betsy De Vos’s paperwork from the Office of Government Ethics. She has completed the committee’s paperwork, answered questions for 3 ½ hours at her confirmation hearing, met privately with the members of the committee, and she will now spend the coming days answering senators’ written questions for the record,” a spokesperson for Alexander said last week. “We know that Betsy De Vos is a passionate defender of improving opportunities for low-income children who has committed to implement the law fixing No Child Left Behind as Congress wrote it, support public schools, and work to protect all children and students from discrimination and ensure they are educated in a safe environment.”. Alexander had initially scheduled a committee vote on De Vos’s confirmation for Jan. 24, but decided to delay the vote a week, ...

Betsy Devos Appears To Have Plagiarized Quote

... schools under Title IX investigations. The Department of Education guidance reads , "Opening a complaint for investigation in no way implies that OCR has made a determination with regard to the merits of the complaint.". De Vos is one of a handful of Trump cabinet nominees that Senate Democrats believe they have a chance of upending. In the hearing earlier this month, De Vos agreed that Trump described sexual assault in a leaked hot mic video from a 2005 entertainment show and turned a discussion of guns in schools turned on grizzly bears. She also appeared at times unaware of federal law governing education and admitted to a "clerical error" that left her as a vice president on her mother's foundation for nearly two decades. She is also not the first Trump staffing pick to face plagiarism allegations since the President's election. Conservative author Monica Crowley stepped away from her appointment to a senior communications role in Trump's then-incoming administration after CNN's KFile uncovered multiple instances of plagiarism. Examples of plagiarism were found in her 2012 book, multiple columns for The Washington Times and her ...

Senate Committee Advances Betsy Devos' Nomination

... the nomination to the next and final step of the confirmation process after all 11 Republicans on the panel voted for Devos and all 11 Democrats voted against her. Two Republicans - Maine's Susan Collins and Alaska's Lisa Murkowski - expressed grave misgivings about the charter school advocate's limited experience with public schools. They said they voted yes only so the entire Senate can debate if De Vos is the right fit. Murkowski said she may not support De Vos in the Senate vote. Meanwhile, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee exploited Senate rules to delay until Wednesday a vote on Sen. Jeff Sessions' nomination to be attorney general. That job was in the spotlight after Trump fired the acting attorney general on Monday over her refusal to defend his executive order blocking nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States. Senate committees were also scheduled to vote on Trump's picks for Treasury secretary and health and human services ...

Devos Will Restore Due Process On Campus Assault

... restoring due process on campus will be much more difficult to accomplish. OCR’s new enforcement director — who assumed her position two days before Trump took office, in what can only be seen as an attempt to use the bureaucracy to sabotage any change of policy — is Harvard’s former Title IX coordinator, Mia Karvonides. She oversaw a Harvard process so unfair that it earned the public condemnation of 28 Harvard Law School professors, including leading liberals and feminists. Will De Vos avoid the Beltway education trap? Column. With many campus sex bureaucrats around the country reflecting the Karvonides approach, accused students increasingly have been forced to turn to the courts to achieve justice. An Amherst student did so after his college refused to consider exculpatory text messages from his accuser. For an Occidental student, a lawsuit was the only path to vindication after his school ignored ...

Senate Democrats Vow To Review Betsy Devos Plagiarism Allegations Before Full Vote

... Trump education adviser Rob Goad described the plagiarism allegations as “character assassination.”. “To level an accusation against her about these words included in responses to nearly 1,400 questions — 139 alone from the ranking member — is simply a desperate attempt to discredit Betsy De Vos, who will serve the Department of Education and our nation’s children with distinction if confirmed,” said Goad, who sits on the White House Domestic Policy Council, in a statement. The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions voted two times 12-11, along party lines, to approve her nomination. The second vote came after Democrats called for a procedural move to require another and move it to next week. That delay effort failed. Despite clearing a key procedural hurtle, De Vos’ eventual confirmation by the full Senate remained an open question as members of her own party told CNN wouldn’t commit to voting for her. Sen. Lisa Murkowski said she had been ...