North Carolina Advocates Weigh In On Betsy DeVos' Confirmation

Education advocates on both sides of the aisle are speaking out about the confirmation of Betsy DeVos as education secretary.

The final confirmation vote in the U.S. Senate Tuesday was closely divided, so much so that Vice President Mike Pence had to cast an historic tiebreaking vote to give DeVos the education position.

DeVos has been a longtime political donor and advocate for school choice measures like charter schools and vouchers funded by taxpayers.

Supporters like Darryll Allison with Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina says her status as an outsider makes her a transformational force.

“I do appreciate the fact that we have a leader that's looking out of the box, that's utilizing what we've seen here in recent years: the growth, the demand, the acceptance of schools like public charter schools,” Allison says. “And now public schools have a place to play here in the shaping and the scoping of our next generation K-12 education.”

But not everyone's excited about DeVos' rise to a cabinet position. Senators reported being bombarded by phone calls at their offices from constituents asking them to vote ‘no' on her confirmation. Critics say she has no expertise in public education and doesn't know enough about how it works. They've also voiced concerns that her web of investments opens her up to conflicts of interest.

Mark Jewell at the North Carolina Association of Educators says her lack of knowledge about federal education programming, among other things, makes her unfit for the job.

“She clearly, during the hearings, was dangerously unqualified, knowing very little about such things as special education,” Jewell says, “and she spent many of her years wanting direct public dollars [to go] into private schools. And that's alarming.”

DeVos is inheriting an agency with 4,400 employees and a $68 billion annual budget. According to the U.S. Department of Education, states collectively receive less than ten percent of their education funding from the federal government, with the rest coming from state, local and private sources.