Senate

Warren: I’m opposing Trump’s ’dangerous’ Education pick

by Jordain Carney - 01/27/17 2:16 PM ET

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Friday said she will vote against President Trump’s nominee for Education secretary, calling Betsy DeVos unqualified for the job.

“It is hard to imagine a less qualified or more dangerous person to be entrusted both with our country’s education policy and with a trillion-dollar student loan program,” Warren said in a statement. “Congress should reject Mrs. DeVos’s nomination.”

She added she will “vote against Betsy DeVos’s nomination to serve as Secretary of Education because her nomination is not in the best interests of the young people.”

{mosads}Warren verbally sparred with DeVos during her confirmation hearing last week, grilling her on the knowledge of the federal student loan program she’d be in charge of overseeing, as well as what she will do to rein in for-profit colleges.

When Warren pressed DeVos to commit to enforcing a gainful employment rule, DeVos said she would “review” the rule to make it was effective.

Warren on Friday said she believes DeVos wouldn’t be “a cop on the beat” or “commit to using the Department’s many tools and resources to keep students from getting cheated.”

Warren also pointed to DeVos’s positions on K-12 education as problematic.

“Not only are her ideas completely uninformed by experience with public schools, but the evidence is clear that her privatization theories are bad for students,” she added.

DeVos has yet to get the support of a single Democrat. She was included on a list of cabinet picks that Democrats considered top targets.

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) said earlier this week that every Democratic senator would vote against DeVos.

DeVos only needs 50 votes to be confirmed, and the GOP has a 52-seat majority in the Senate. So Democrats could only stop her if three Republicans voted against her.

Tags Al Franken Elizabeth Warren