Trump’s Controversial Education Pick Betsy DeVos Barely Clears Senate Hurdle

The nomination now moves to the full Senate.

Ron Sachs/CNP/ZumaWire

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After a contentious partisan debate and fierce opposition from Senate Democrats, billionaire GOP megadonor and education secretary nominee Betsy DeVos squeaked through her committee vote in a party-line vote Tuesday afternoon. Her nomination will now go to the Senate floor. 

As my colleague Kristina Rizga points out in her recent investigation, DeVos and her family have donated millions of dollars to right-wing causes and conservative Christian groups. Teachers unions, activists, and Senate Democrats criticized DeVos, a longtime school choice proponent and wife of Amway scion Dick DeVos, saying that she lacks proper qualifications, isn’t committed to public education, and may not be willing to enforce federal laws that protect students with disabilities. In the weeks since DeVos’ initial hearing, calls flooded the offices of senators who served on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, mostly in opposition to her nomination.

Senate Democrats debated whether the initial vote in favor of DeVos was valid after Sen. Orrin Hatch voted while absent. Committee chair Sen. Lamar Alexander allowed a second vote to take place when Hatch returned, much to the Democrats’ displeasure, clearing the hurdle for DeVos with a 12-to-11 vote along party lines.

Though they sided with the panel, Republican Sens. Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski refused to commit to voting in DeVos’ favor on the Senate floor. “[H]er concentration on charter schools and vouchers,” said Collins, who represents Maine, “raises the question of whether or not she fully appreciates that the secretary of education’s primary focus must be on helping states and communities, parents, teachers, school board members and administrators strengthen our public schools.” Collins added she was concerned about DeVos’ “lack of familiarity” with the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act.

Murkowski, who represents Alaska, said her office had received thousands of calls from constituents, adding that DeVos “must prove she will work to help the struggling public schools that strive to educate our children.”

Murkowski added, “I will vote to report Mrs. DeVos’ nomination to the full Senate. But do know she has not yet earned my full support.”

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

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And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

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