Murkowski says she’ll vote ‘no’ on DeVos

President Donald Trump’s nominee for Education secretary, Betsy DeVos (Screenshot of U.S. Senate video)
President Donald Trump’s nominee for Education secretary, Betsy DeVos (Screenshot of U.S. Senate video)

Updated | 9 a.m. Thursday

U.S> Sen. Lisa Murkowski announced Wednesday she will vote “no” on the confirmation of Betsy DeVos to be education secretary. Her decision follows intense pressure from her constituents, who have flooded her office with emails, calls and visitors. But Alaska’s two U.S. senators are split over DeVos.

Murkowski, in a speech on the Senate floor, said thousands of Alaskans have asked her to vote against the nominee.

“And their concerns center, as mine do, on Mrs. DeVos’s lack of experience with public education and the lack of knowledge that she portrayed in her confirmation hearing,” Murkowski said.

DeVos, a Michigan billionaire, has been a champion of school choice and vouchers. The National Education Association and other teachers’ unions are campaigning against her. They and other opponents say DeVos would dismantle public education by funneling government dollars to private, religious and for-profit schools.

In much of Alaska, Murkowski says, there is no alternative school and students need the public school system to operate at its best. The senator announced she’ll vote “no” a day after she voted “yes” in the Senate Education Committee to advance the nomination to the full Senate. Murkowski says that’s in keeping with her practice on cabinet nominees.

“It’s confusing to some who say ‘Well wait a minute: you let her move through committee but then you vote against her. How does that all work?’ I think you need to put it in context with how I have handled all presidents’ nominees to this point in time,” Murkowski said.

She says in her Senate career, she has only voted against one nominee in committee, because she says, he wasn’t honest with her.

“Mrs. DeVos didn’t lie to me,” Murkowski said. “She was honest with her answers. I didn’t like her answers because they didn’t give me the depth and breadth of experience that I want for a secretary.”

Murkowski’s floor speech came right after another Republican, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, said she won’t support DeVos either. DeVos opponents are now looking to pick off one more Republican vote, which would kill the appointment, assuming Senate Democrats are united against her.

Great Alaska Schools co-founder Alyse Galvin says Murkowski has restored her faith.

“This is great news to us,” said Galvin, who helped organize a demonstration at Murkowski’s Anchorage office this week. “This is our biggest sign that she is listening to her constituents after all, at least on this vote. And we hope that she shares what she knows with Sen. Sullivan.”

Sen. Dan Sullivan, though, announced Wednesday evening he’s voting for DeVos. In a written statement, Sullivan said he shares Murkowski’s concerns but is convinced DeVos cares deeply about kids and that she will return decision-making back to the local level.

Updated | 1:16 p.m.

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski announced on the Senate floor today that she will vote against President Donald Trump’s nominee for education secretary. Murkowski said she’s heard from thousands of Alaskans who are concerned that Betsy DeVos lacks public school experience, and Murkowski said she shares that concern.

U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, also announced today that she’s voting against the DeVos confirmation. Without further Republican defections, though, the DeVos nomination still can clear the Senate.

Original story | 9:55 a.m.

Murkowski votes to advance DeVos, angering Alaska school advocates

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski had an opportunity Tuesday morning to block President Donald Trump’s pick for Education secretary.

Thousands of Alaskans have raised objections to Betsy DeVos, but Murkowski voted in the Education Committee to send the nomination to the full Senate for a vote, and Alaska education activists are angry.

DeVos is proponent of school vouchers, with no direct experience in public schools as a student, educator or parent.

Murkowski said she’s aware that many of her constituents don’t believe DeVos is right for the position.

“I have to acknowledge the thousands, the thousands of Alaskans who have shared their concerns with me about Mrs. DeVos as secretary of Education,” Murkowski said, before the committee vote. “They have come to my office here in Washington, in Alaska, on the phones, in petitions.”

Murkowski says she generally believes a president should be able to assemble his cabinet, but she said she has doubts about DeVos.

“I have serious concerns about a nominee to be secretary of education who has been so involved in one side of the equation, so immersed in the push for vouchers, that she may be unaware of who is broken in our public schools or how to fix it,” Murkowski said.

The committee voted 12-11, along party lines, to advance DeVos’s nomination to the full Senate, and Murkowski was one of the 12.

The senator warned, though, that she might not vote for confirmation.

“Do know that she has not yet earned my full support, and when each of us have the opportunity to vote aye or nay on the floor, I would not advise that she yet count on my vote,” she said.

That wasn’t enough for Anchorage resident Deena Mitchell.

“I cannot express the level of shock and just sadness that Sen. Murkowski did not stand up for our Alaskan children,” said Mitchell, member of Great Alaska Schools, a group that has been rallying Alaska opposition to DeVos.

They say the nominee doesn’t appear committed to the concept that all children deserve a great chance at education.

Great Alaska Schools, with 24-hours notice, organized a lunchtime demonstration at Murkowski’s Anchorage office on Monday. Mitchell said about 250 people showed up, and she said Murkowski’s staffers told her their phones are inundated.

“They said every chance they get, every 15 minutes, they are emptying that voicemail and it fills right back up,” Mitchell said. “So Alaskans are persistent, they keep trying to call until they can get it through to that voicemail.”

(Murkowski, in a Facebook post last week, said her offices have been flooded with “phone calls from the Lower 48.” She suggested Alaskans contact her through her website if they have trouble getting through on the phone.)

Some Alaskans are pointing to the DeVos family’s contributions to Murkwoski’s political campaign – more than $40,000.

Mitchell said she doesn’t believe in conspiracy theories – and the contributions were in 2015, long before anyone knew Trump would be elected president or that DeVos would be his nominee. But Mitchell says the contributions may have had a subtle influence.

“I think it’s difficult when somebody has been supportive of you, and been friendly toward you,” Mitchell said. “I’m sure it’s difficult to then vote against somebody like that. I think it’s just human nature.”

Mitchell says she hopes to keep the pressure on Murkowski until the Senate vote.

Earlier in the day, the Senate Energy Committee, which Murkowski chairs, voted to send Interior secretary nominee Ryan Zinke to the full Senate for a vote, as well as the nominee to head the Energy Department, Rick Perry.

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