The Senate confirmed Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education, after an intense Democratic effort to stop her. With two Republicans voting against her, the final vote was tied, meaning that Vice President Pence, exercising his prerogative as president of the Senate, cast the deciding vote in her favor.
DeVos is an educational reform activist and a champion for school choice and vouchers for private education (including Christian schools and homeschools). Democrats, with their big constituency of teachers’ unions, condemned her lack of experience with public education.
Photo of Betsy DeVos by Keith A. Almli (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Betsy_Devos.jpg) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Vice President Mike Pence cast a historic tie-breaking vote Tuesday to confirm Betsy DeVos as the next education secretary after the Senate was evenly divided over the controversial pick.
The 51-50 vote ends Trump’s toughest confirmation battle yet. Senate Democrats debated through the night and into Tuesday morning in a last-ditch attempt to derail DeVos, buoyed by support from Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine.
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