Despite a revolt by two Senate Republicans, Donald Trump’s pro-school choice nominee for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, has been confirmed by the Senate — but only with Vice President Mike Pence providing the tie-breaking vote. Pence stepping in to break the 50-50 tie is the first time in American history that a sitting vice president has helped confirm a Cabinet nominee.
As the Daily Wire has highlighted, Trump’s choice of DeVos has received some of the strongest backlash among his nominations thus far. The left despises DeVos because of her pro-school choice/anti-teachers union stances, as well as her promise to follow Trump’s direction as Education Secretary.
Some of the arguments against DeVos from the right have offered include her inexperience, her past support of Common Core — on which she has since reversed, condemning it as a “federalized boondoggle” — her Establishment Republican pedigree, and the connection between her family’s foundation and the Clinton foundation. Despite some of those objections, however, all of the Senate Republicans besides two — Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, both of whom are backed by teachers unions — voted to confirm her on Tuesday.
DeVos’s strong support for school voucher programs is what has many conservatives excited by her confirmation. When Trump first announced DeVos as his pick, Daily Wire editor-in-chief Ben Shapiro highlighted some of her pro-school choice credentials:
Meet Betsy DeVos, a massive donor and leader in the movement for charter schools and school vouchers. DeVos explained, “The status quo in education is not acceptable. Together, we can work to make transformational change that ensures every student in America has the opportunity to fulfill his or her highest potential.” DeVos, who is chair of the American Federation for Children, used to support Common Core; she apparently no longer does, although that hasn’t stopped criticism from Common Core foes. She’s considered a member of the Republican establishment, and though many of her allies gave tons of money to Trump, she did not; she even called him an “interloper” during his early run.
In 2013, DeVos set forth her goals: that “all parents, regardless of their zip code, have…the opportunity to choose the best educational setting for their children.” This has angered all the major public sector teacher’s unions – scamster Randi Weingarten of the American Federation of Teachers whined, “she would impose her reckless and extreme ideology on the nation.” Weingarten added, “Trump has chosen the most ideological, anti-public ed nominee since the creation of the Dept of Education.” Atheist lobbyist Barry Lynn of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, said the DeVos pick was “an insult to public education.”
As for Pence’s historic tie-break vote, it might be the first for Cabinet nominees, but it’s certainly not the first time a sitting Vice President has stepped in to make help a stalemated Senate. HotAir’s Ed Morissey offers some context:
It’s hardly the first time a VP has had to cast a vote in the Senate; NBC’s Carrie Dann reports that we’ve seen it 242 times in our history, or a little over once per year in our post-constitutional era, but never on a Cabinet nomination. Why hasn’t it happened more often? Well, until Harry Reid blew up the filibuster, the minority party could stop a Cabinet confirmation without it coming to a floor vote, and the threshold for filibusters has been between 34 and 40 over the last two hundred-plus years. Under those circumstances, the VP couldn’t have cast a vote at all. We are much more likely to see these kinds of votes in the future, thanks to Reid’s machinations. Consider that when commentators talk about how Pence’s presence was a historic rebuke of Donald Trump.