Betsy Devos

Concerned Citizens Take Formal Stand Against Betsy Devos

... 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. Shelby was still reviewing the nomination. “We asked if Sen. Shelby can hold a town-hall event for North Alabama constituents but we were told he has no plans for that at this time,” Keller stated. “We and thousands of Alabamians believe that our public schools deserve a leader who is qualified and committed to their ...

Betsy Devos Appears Before Senate Education Committee In Confirmation Hearing

... that way. MURRAY: Well, (laughter) OK. SIEGEL: Now, Cory, Congress passed a bipartisan federal education law just over a year ago. Even if De Vos wanted to create a kind of national voucher plan, could she actually do that. TURNER: Certainly not easily, and this came up in the hearing tonight, Robert. It was brought up by actually one of her strongest supporters, a Republican, a former education secretary himself and the committee's chairman, Lamar Alexander. He made clear Congress had debated vouchers when they were debating the big federal education law just over a year ago, and they decided not to go there. So he asked De Vos if she would still try to push a voucher mandate onto states. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING). DEVOS: No. I would hope I could convince you all of the merit of that in maybe some future legislation but certainly any kind of mandate from within the department. SIEGEL: Now, Cory, I want you to talk briefly about De Vos' financial holdings, which were also a topic at the ...

Betsy Devos Appears To Have Plagiarized Quote

... Goad, who sits on the White House Domestic Policy Council. Sen. Patty Murray said Tuesday she is reviewing written answers the Michigan billionaire provided to the Senate that may include plagiarized material. In another instance, De Vos' appears to have lifted language from the Department of Education website. "Opening a complaint for investigation in no way implies that the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has made a determination about the merits of the complaint," De Vos wrote in response to a question about publishing the list of 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 ...

Devos Will Restore Due Process On Campus Assault

... determined to roll back the progress we’ve made on campus sexual assault.”. Democrats are terrified De Vos will succeed: Christian Schneider. But FIRE is neither “far right” (it’s non-partisan ) nor some soft-on-rape outfit. It is the nation’s preeminent defender of free speech, due process, religious freedom, and other civil liberties for university students and faculty members — conservatives and liberals, Christian and Muslims, gays and straights — against persecution by authoritarian university bureaucrats, federal and state officials, and others who seek to stifle debate or presume guilt. FIRE has attacked OCR for its guidance on campus sexual assault, noting that only a system that treats both sides fairly can be trusted to produce the truth. That a sitting senator views this agenda with horror is deeply troubling. De Vos should be proud of her contributions to FIRE. And, at the hearing, she correctly informed Casey that it would be “ premature ” to say ...

No Democrat Will Vote For Betsy Devos As Education Secretary

... and correspondence raise questions about whether the superintendent is too closely tied to De Vos. [ Hundreds of students, alumni from De Vos’s Christian college oppose her nomination as education secretary ]. The committee is scheduled to vote on her nomination on Tuesday, Jan. 31, a week later than originally scheduled. Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) moved the date after Democrats demanded more time to ask her questions after her confirmation hearing performance. He declined a Democratic request for a second hearing. Franken told Maddow that Senate Democrats held a recent retreat to talk about strategy for dealing with Trump’s Cabinet nominees, though he declined to say what it was. He did say that De Vos was one of the nominations that would receive strong Democratic opposition. He did not specifically say whether he meant on the education committee or the Senate floor, but it seemed as if he was talking about a confirmation vote in ...

Senate Committee Advances Betsy Devos' Nomination

... medical company and reports that Mnuchin's former bank, One West, used automated "robo-signings" of foreclosure documents, which apparently contradicted statements the nominees had made to senators. Republican Orrin Hatch, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, called the Democratic boycott "shocking" and "offensive.". "They're going to vote no. They've made that very clear," he said to other Republicans on the committee. "I think they ought to stop posturing and acting like idiots. What's the matter with the other party? Are they that bitter about Donald Trump?". Sen. Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the committee, told reporters Democrats were not ready to consider either nominee. "We've made clear that we need additional information to make these judgments," he said. The Democrats said they wanted more information about Price and Mnuchin after media ...

Senate Panel Delays Vote On Budget Nominee

... for two hours past the start of the Senate day. That rule is generally waived. In their speeches, Democrats questioned whether the Alabama Republican could be independent of President Donald Trump as the nation's chief law enforcement officer. Sessions was one of Trump's first and strongest supporters. 1:20 p.m. A Senate panel has voted favorably for the nomination of former wrestling entertainment executive Linda Mc Mahon to lead the Small Business Administration. The 18-1 vote from the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee moves Mc Mahon's nomination to the full Senate for consideration. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N. J., has cast the lone "no" vote. Mc Mahon is the former chief executive of World Wrestling Entertainment. She ran unsuccessfully for the U. S. Senate in Connecticut but ...

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

... Committee voted 12-11 along party lines to approve Betsy De Vos, a Michigan philanthropist and conservative activist chosen by President Donald Trump to head the U. S. Department of Education. Murray, the top-ranked Democrat on the panel, accused Alexander, the committee’s chairman, of moving too quickly, denying a request for a second hearing and not allowing Democrats enough time to conduct a thorough investigation 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 ...

Six Astonishing Things Betsy Devos Said

... 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 De Vos 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 De Vos 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 ...

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

... education secretaries, had been treated during their confirmation hearings. But Democrats said that no committee chairman had ever before shut down a hearing before members had a chance to ask all their questions. Betsy De Vos, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for education secretary, appeared before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee for her confirmation hearing Jan. 17. (Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post). Duncan and King were known quantities with long track records in public education, Democrats said; there simply wasn’t as much to ask them. They have framed De Vos as a different nominee altogether: A Michigan billionaire who has no professional experience in public schools. De Vos fed that narrative when she stumbled over questions about basic education policy during the Jan. 17 hearing, at one point suggesting that states should be able to decide whether to enforce a federal civil rights law meant to protect children with disabilities. Her statement that guns should not be ...

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

... The vote came after The Washington Post reported that De Vos had appeared to plagiarize answers she submitted to the panel. Murray, whose questions spurred the plagiarism allegations, said at the Senate hearing that it appears the Michigan Republican’s responses were “copied and pasted from previous statements, or are simple reiterations of the law and not true responses at all.”. “Additionally, we just received responses to hundreds of written questions yesterday — less than 24 hours before a scheduled vote — and with no time for full review and to ask any follow-up questions,” Murray said. “Though, I will say—upon initial review, many of the responses look copied and pasted from previous statements, or are simple reiterations of the law and not true responses at all.”. Trump education adviser Rob Goad ...

Confirmation Of Betsy Devos Could Lead To More Baylors

... report prepared for the National Institute of Justice found that about 1 in 5 women are victims of completed or attempted sexual assault while in college. The report also found that approximately 6.1 percent of males were victims of completed or attempted sexual assault during college. The lower standard of proof, coupled with a reiteration of a school’s requirements under Title IX, marked a critical effort by OCR and the Obama administration to make the process of reporting a sexual assault on campus easier for victims. However, three years later in 2014,   91 percent of colleges reported zero incidents of rape  on their campus that year. That lack of reporting flew in the face of  findings by the U. S. Department of Justice that one in five women is sexually assaulted while in college. Clearly, it’s important for Title IX to do much more to make college students feel safe in reporting rape. Which brings us to De Vos, Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Education. In 2012 and 2013, De Vos donated a total of $10,000 to the group Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), which has filed its own lawsuit against OCR, alleging ...