Highlights of U.S. Secretary of Education confirmation hearing
Published: January 18, 2017
Late yesterday, the Senate Health, Education Labor and Pensions Committee held Betsy DeVos's confirmation hearing. Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) and former Sen. Joe Lieberman introduced DeVos. Committee members questioned DeVos for just over three hours. Assuming the Office of Government Ethics completes her ethics review by Friday, and she completes the post-hearing follow-up questions submitted by committee members in a timely manner, Chairman Lamar Alexander plans to schedule the committee vote on her nomination next Tuesday, Jan. 24. A vote by the full Senate could follow late next week. The committee's questions covered a range of topics, including early learning, special education, measures of school performance, career and technical education, campus sexual assault, and, school choice. The hearing offered only limited new insights into the nominee's vision and plans, but did confirm key committee members’ policy priorities for the 115th Congress. Highlights from the discussion, included the following:
School Choice – Sen. Alexander's (R-TN) opening remarks and later questioning, positioned the hearing's school choice conversation around strong, longstanding, bi-partisan support for charter schools. He also made a point of noting that during the Every Student Succeeds Act debate, Congress rejected a proposal — one he and Sen. Scott (R-SC) championed — to promote Title I portability, while asking the nominee to confirm she would implement the law as written. She said that she would, including that she would not try to pursue a major choice initiative without Congress.
Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) turned the conversation to a focus on vouchers and questioned the nominee about her commitment to public schools. DeVos did not commit to steering clear of championing a vouchers/scholarship model, instead saying she supports a mix of strong public and private schools. Other committee members questioned the nominee about whether traditional and charter schools should be held to the same accountability requirements. She signaled support for uniform traditional public school and charter accountability requirements, but did not commit to a similar approach for private schools accepting publicly funded voucher students.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) was the only Republican committee member to question the nominee's focus on school choice, noting that Alaska's vast spaces demand effective public schools in every community. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) asked if she would "force" states to accept school choice. She responded that she would not impose choice on states, which may allay concerns that she will use ESSA's waiver authority, or other mechanisms, to entice states to pursue choice-based models.
Special Education –New HELP Committee member, Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH), asked the nominee to express her position on whether a special education student should have to waiver his or her rights under Individuals with Disabilities Education Act under a hypothetical voucher based model, or alternatively if private schools serving voucher students should be obligated to comply with IDEA. DeVos responded that she is "sensitive" to the needs of special education students, but the issue should be left to state and local decision making. Her response arguably demonstrated a lack of knowledge about IDEA and its status as federal law and she will undoubtedly be questioned further about this response during the remainder of the nomination process and beyond. On a related note, Sen. Cassidy (R-LA) asked DeVos if she supports universal screening for dyslexia. She was supportive and said she would explore whether screening was a state or federal responsibility.
Early Learning – Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA) reiterated his support for expanding preschool opportunities — noting Georgia's leadership in the area —and asked the nominee if she would work with him on the issue. She briefly responded that she would be willing to collaborate with him on the initiative and would also work closely with the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Sen. Murray (D-WA) also used the hearing to express her focus on early learning. Sen. Isakson and Sen. Murray worked together to authorize the Preschool Development Grants program in ESSA (at HHS) and their decision to use limited time at the hearing to highlight the issue, could signal further early learning work together, including coordinating efforts to secure funding for the Preschool Development Grants program in FY'18 and beyond.
Career and Technical Education - Sen. Scott (R-SC) asked the nominee about how to provide greater flexibility for career and technical education students, arguing that the system places too much emphasis on bachelor’s degrees and not enough on equipping students with workplace skills. DeVos agreed and noted the importance of providing a wide variety of alternative pathways for students and said effective CTE should be a strategy for reducing dropout rates
Measuring School Performance - Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) asked the nominee to discuss the education community's debate about the merits of measuring student growth v. measuring proficiency. She did not provide a clear response and appeared not to understand the distinction. While not fatal, this stumble could fuel Democrat's arguments against using the Congressional Review Act to eliminate the ESSA accountability and state planning regulations.
Conditions for Learning/School Safety -Sen. Franken (D-MN), Sen. Baldwin (D-WI), and Sen. Murray (D-WA) questioned the nominee about whether she supports lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students. The nominee responded that she supports a safe learning environment for all students. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) asked the nominee if guns have any place in schools. She responded that the decision should be left to states and localities and cited a prior conversation with Sen. Michael Enzi (R-WY) about a Wyoming school with a grizzly bear fence that might benefit from having a gun on the property to defend students from wildlife. At the end of the hearing, Senator Murray (D-WA) asked the nominee a line of questioning about sexual assault and the Office for Civil Rights’ related guidance. Ms. DeVos reiterated her support for ensuring that all students have a safe learning environment, but did not commit to maintaining OCR's existing guidance.