According to The Hill, Senator Al Franken (D-Minn) says President Trump‘s pick for Education Secretary Betsy DeVos will receive zero support from Democrats regarding her confirmation.
Speaking to MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on Thursday, Franken said that Democrats were lobbying for Republicans to vote ‘no’ on her confirmation as well.
“She is an ideologue who knows next to nothing about education policy as … she demonstrated really in her confirmation hearing,” Franken said. “There’s going to be a lot of these nominees who we’re going to do everything we can to defeat.”
Franken made news with his questioning of DeVos, where she seemed not to understand basic concepts regarding education policy.
On January 17, Franken asked DeVos if students should be evaluated on their “growth” or “proficiency.”
“I think, if I’m understanding your question correctly around proficiency, I would also correlate it to competency and mastery, so that each student is measured according to the advancement they’re making in each subject area,” she said.
“Well, that’s growth. That’s not proficiency,” Franken replied. “I’m talking about the debate between proficiency and growth and what your thoughts are on that.”
When DeVos asked Franken to “clarify,” he was dumbfounded.
“It surprises me that you don’t know this issue,” Franken said incredulously. “And Mr. Chairman, I think this a good reason for us to have more questions.”
Franken asks the Secretary of Education nominee on her views re: proficiency vs. growth. She is not qualified to lead. #DeVosHearing pic.twitter.com/QN1HLsc1WV
— deray (@deray) January 18, 2017
Opposition to DeVos’s confirmation has grown since her hearing, and Democrats had hoped to hold a second round of questioning. That hope was later shot down by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.
“We feel very strongly there ought to be another hearing, and this will affect how the rest of the nominees will go forward because we need time on them,” Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said at the hearing last week, according to The Hill.
A vote on DeVos’s confirmation will be held on January 31.
Watch Franken’s interview with Rachel Maddow in the video below:
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