Betsy DeVos Won’t Get Michigan Senator’s Vote for Education Secretary

U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Michigan, said Friday that a sit-down conversation with Betsy DeVos, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Education Department, “reaffirmed” her “strong concerns” about the West Michigan billionaire’s two-decade long history of advocacy for private schools and taxpayer-funded vouchers.

The Senate Education Committee will begin hearings on DeVos’ confirmation as secretary of education on Wednesday, Jan. 11. School choice is DeVos’ bailiwick — her own children got a private, Christian-based education — and she argues that competition will be good for America’s public schools. Supporters see DeVos as a reformer who will take on special interests, but critics say shifting education funding to support private schools harms local school districts and students.

She is expected to win confirmation in the Republican-controlled Senate, where only a simple majority of votes is needed. But Stabenow said DeVos won’t get her vote.

“Betsy DeVos and her family have a long record of pushing policies that I believe have seriously undermined public education in Michigan and failed our children,” Stabenow told the Detroit Free Press.

• See Also: School Choice Advocate Betsy DeVos Trump’s U.S. Education Secretary Pick

Ed Patru, a spokesman for the Friends of Betsy DeVos bipartisan group supporting her nomination, told the Free Press DeVos had a “great conversation” with Stabenow and thinks the two will find “common ground,” as they did when Stabenow was a Michigan state legislator.

Despite the criticism, DeVos is generally regarded as someone who can break through political gridlock. Michigan State Rep. Amanda Price, a Park Township Republican who heads the House Education Committee, wrote in an op-ed published in The Detroit News that DeVos effectively works across party lines.

“I consistently hear from school leaders around the state that their schools are being micromanaged by an extensive, and growing, list of federal and state mandates,” Price wrote. “With DeVos as education secretary, we can rest assured that she’ll not pursue the kind of federal overreaches we’ve seen in the recent past.”

Trump announced on Nov. 24 that he had picked DeVos, a former Michigan Republican Party chair and political powerbroker whose husband, Amway head Dick DeVos ran unsuccessfully for governor. He said at the time that she would fix some of the systemic problems that are holding back America’s school children.

Photo by Keith A. Almli via Wikimedia Commons