[il-talk] a time to be heard

Thu Jan 19 05:24:49 UTC 2017

I am pasting an article from the Washington Post summarizing 
confirmation hearings for Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education.
If you are opposed to what she had to say, please call your senators 
and let your feelings be heard.

Six astonishing things Betsy DeVos said — and refused to say — at her 
confirmation hearing

By Valerie Strauss

January 18 at 1:46 AM 

6 head-scratching moments from Betsy DeVos's confirmation hearing
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Play Video3:38

Betsy DeVos, 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)

At her contentious confirmation hearing as Donald Trump’s nominee to be 
education secretary on Tuesday, Betsy DeVos was asked a question by 
Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) about an important education debate involving 
how student progress should be measured. The query essentially rendered 
her speechless as she appeared not to know how to answer. When Franken 
told her he was upset she didn’t understand it, she did not protest.

That was just one of several moments during the hearing in which DeVos 
either displayed a lack of knowledge about education fundamentals or 
refused to answer questions that Democratic members of the Senate 
Education Committee believe are critical to her fitness for the job.

 [Betsy DeVos, Trump’s education pick, lauded as bold reformer, called 
unfit for job]

Here are some of the notable moments:
•DeVos refused to agree with a Democrat that schools are no place for 
guns, citing one school that needs one to protect against grizzly 
bears. (She really said this.)

When Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) asked her whether she would agree that 
guns don’t belong in schools, she said: “I will refer back to Sen. 
[Mike] Enzi and the school he was talking about in Wyoming. I think 
probably there, I would imagine that there is probably a gun in the 
schools to protect from potential grizzlies.”

And when asked whether she would support President-elect Donald Trump 
if he, as he has promised, moves to end gun-free zones around schools, 
she said: “I will support what the president-elect does.” She added: 
“If the question is around gun violence and the results of that, please 
know that my heart bleeds and is broken for those families that have 
lost any individual due to gun violence.”

[Do guns belong in schools? Trump’s education pick declines to take a stand.]
•DeVos seemed to have no understanding of the Individuals with 
Disabilities Education Act, known as IDEA, which requires public 
schools to provide free and appropriate education to all students with 
disabilities.

DeVos said that states should have the right to decide whether to 
enforce IDEA, but when Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) later told her that 
IDEA is a federal civil rights law and asked DeVos if she stood by her 
statement that it was up to the states to follow it, DeVos responded, 
“Federal law must be followed where federal dollars are in play.” 
Hassan then asked, “So were you unaware when I just asked you about the 
IDEA that it was a federal law?” DeVos responded, “I may have confused 
it.” DeVos did not protest when Hassan said she was upset the nominee 
didn’t understand the law and urged her to learn about it.

 [Betsy DeVos apparently ‘confused’ about federal law protecting 
students with disabilities]
•DeVos refused to agree with Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) that all schools 
that receive public federal funds — traditional public, public charter 
or private schools that receive voucher money — should be held to the 
same standards of accountability.

Kaine: “If confirmed will you insist upon equal accountability in any 
K-12 school or educational program that receives taxpayer funding 
whether public, public charter or private?”
DeVos: “I support accountability.”
Kaine: “Equal accountability?”
DeVos: “I support accountability.”
Kaine: “Is that a yes or a no?”
DeVos: “I support accountability.”
Kaine: “Do you not want to answer my question?”
DeVos: “I support accountability.”
Kaine: “Let me ask you this. I think all schools that receive taxpayer 
funding should be equally accountable. Do you agree?”
DeVos: “Well they don’t, they are not today.”
Kaine: “Well, I think they should. Do you agree with me?
 DeVos: “Well no . . . ”
Kaine, interrupting her, said: “You don’t agree with me.” And he moved 
on to another topic.

 [In Senate hearing, DeVos stoked activists’ fears that she will ignore 
education civil rights]
•DeVos said she would review gainful employment regulations without 
committing to enforce them.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) asked DeVos 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.

DeVos said, “If confirmed, I will certainly be very vigilant.” Warren 
persisted, “I’m asking how.” When DeVos 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 DeVos that 
there is actually a group of rules already on the books, the gainful 
employment regulations. “All you have to do is enforce then,” Warren 
said, asking DeVos if she would do so. She wouldn’t commit.

The gainful employment regulations are meant to protect students and 
taxpayers by withholding federal student aid to career training 
programs that leave students buried in debt with few opportunities to 
repay. Asked by Warren if she would enforce the regulations, DeVos 
said: “We will certainly review that rule, and see if it is actually 
achieving what the intentions are.”

Warren: “I don’t understand about reviewing it. We talked about this in 
my office. There are already rules in place to stop waste, fraud and 
abuse. . . . Swindlers and crooks are out there doing back flips when 
they hear an answer like this.”

[What we learned about Betsy DeVos’s higher education positions … not much]

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), with Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) at 
the hearing for Betsy DeVos. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)
•DeVos appeared to have no idea what Franken was talking about when he 
referred to the accountability debate about whether to use test scores 
to measure student proficiency or student growth.

Franken noted that the subject had been debated in the education 
community for years, and said, when she didn’t weigh in and just looked 
at him without much of an expression on her face, “It surprises me that 
you don’t know this issue.”
•DeVos did not answer Sen. Michael F. Bennet (D-Colo.) when he asked 
her what she had learned about the failures of the Detroit traditional 
public and public charter schools that would inform her decision-making 
as the secretary of education.

Bennet, a big supporter of charter schools, made the point that school 
choice isn’t much of a choice when schools aren’t held accountable and 
families have lousy choices wherever they look. He noted that the 
Detroit public schools — one of the country’s most troubled systems — 
has low student achievement, and charter schools in Detroit score only 
minimally higher.  He also cited a study that said charter schools 
across Michigan perform worse the traditional public schools do. But 
instead of answering his question, she told him she wanted to give him 
“context” about Detroit, to which he responded, “With respect, I’m not 
asking for a history of Detroit.” She also said, “I think there is a 
lot that has gone right” there, but she never answered his question.

•And here’s a bonus:

DeVos said her name should not have been included on tax forms for her 
mother’s foundation, which has contributed to controversial causes. The 
forms say that she was vice president and a member of the board.

“That was a clerical error,” DeVos said. “I have never made decisions 
on my mother’s behalf.”

[Betsy DeVos’s 13-year ‘clerical error’]



See photos from the second week of confirmation hearings of Trump’s 
Cabinet nominees

View Photos

Hearings continue on the president-elect’s choices for top jobs in his 
administration.