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February 8, 2017

Senate Confirms Billionaire Betsy DeVos for Education Secretary
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On Capitol Hill, the Senate has confirmed billionaire Betsy De Vos for
education secretary, after a historic tie-breaking vote from Vice
President Mike Pence. De Vos's nomination has sparked widespread outrage
and resistance among education advocates, who are concerned De Vos will
move to defund and privatize public education. De Vos is a longtime
backer of charter schools and vouchers for private and religious
schools. She considers education an "industry," and she's called the
public school system system "a dead end." De Vos's confirmation comes
after Senate Democrats launched a 24-hour protest debate in efforts to
stall the vote as they tried to find a third Republican senator to vote
against her. On Tuesday in New York City, public school students who
were walking out of class in protest against President Trump reacted to
the confirmation of Betsy De Vos. This is high school student Tim
Markbreiter.

Tim Markbreiter: "So, just now, actually, just a few minutes ago, there
was a tie in the vote for Betsy De Vos, and so Mike Pence got the last
vote, because of the tie, and she got confirmed, obviously, because of
his conservative agenda, which-I mean, personally, I go to public
school, and I think I value the education I get so much, and I'm just
stunned that this country, after everything that's going on and after
all the division, that this billionaire woman, who never even went to a
public school, got confirmed."



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