U.S. Secretary of Education
Nomination On November 23, 2016, Trump's transition team announced DeVos as the nominee to be the next
secretary of education. Upon her nomination, DeVos said "I am honored to work with the President-elect on his vision to make American education great again. The
status quo in ed is not acceptable." Rebecca Mead of
The New Yorker questioned the efficacy of Michigan's charter school system, which DeVos has supported. Former presidential candidates
Jeb Bush and
Mitt Romney respectively called DeVos an "outstanding pick" and a "smart choice". Republican senator
Ben Sasse said DeVos "has made a career out of standing up to powerful and connected special interests on behalf of poor kids who are too often forgotten by Washington". In an opinion editorial, the
Chicago Tribune wrote that "DeVos has helped lead the national battle to expand education opportunities for children".
Confirmation hearing The confirmation hearing for DeVos was initially scheduled for January 10, 2017, but was delayed for one week after the
Office of Government Ethics requested more time to review her financial disclosures. On January 17, 2017, the
Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions held the hearing, which lasted three-and-one-half hours and "quickly became a heated and partisan debate". Democratic senators directed several questions toward her regarding her wealth, including questions about her family's political donations to the Republican Party and whether or not she had personal experience with
financial aid or
student loans. DeVos drew widespread media attention during the confirmation hearings for suggesting that guns might have a place in some schools due to a threat from grizzly bears. DeVos's comment was later lampooned by television personalities
Kate McKinnon on
Saturday Night Live,
Jimmy Kimmel,
Stephen Colbert and
James Corden. Prior to DeVos's confirmation, numerous U.S. senators from both parties reported tens of thousands of their
constituents having contacted their offices in opposition to the confirmation of DeVos. More than 300 state lawmakers from across the U.S., overwhelmingly Democrats, voiced their opposition to DeVos's appointment in a letter to the U.S. Senate sent the day before a scheduled vote on her nomination. DeVos's nomination was supported by 18 Republican governors, including
John Kasich and
Rick Snyder, along with the nine Republican members of Congress from Michigan.
Debate and final vote On January 31, DeVos's nomination was approved by the committee on a 12–11 party-line vote and was due to be voted on by the Senate. Later on February 1, 2017, two Republican U.S. senators,
Susan Collins from
Maine and
Lisa Murkowski from
Alaska, came out against the confirmation (despite supporting DeVos in committee when both of them voted to move her nomination to the floor), bringing the predicted confirmation vote on DeVos to 50–50 if all Democrats and independents voted as expected, meaning Vice President
Mike Pence would have to break the tie. During an unusually early 6:30 a.m. vote on February 3, 2017,
cloture was invoked on DeVos's nomination in the Senate, requiring a final vote on the confirmation to happen after 30 hours of debate. Ahead of the scheduled final vote at noon on February 7, 2017, the Democrats in the Senate continuously spoke on the floor against the confirmation of DeVos the entire night before leading up to the vote, in protest of their strong disapproval of the nominee. As expected, there was a 50–50 tie on the final vote, with all Democrats and independents, along with two Republicans (
Susan Collins and
Lisa Murkowski), voting in opposition to DeVos, while the other fifty Republican senators voted in support of the confirmation, including Senator
Jeff Sessions, who himself had been nominated by the Trump administration for the post of
United States attorney general. Republicans scheduled Sessions's confirmation vote after DeVos's so that he would be able to cast his vote in support of DeVos. Had his confirmation vote been earlier than hers, he would have been forced to resign from the Senate, therefore losing a vital vote for the Republicans on the confirmation. Since there was a tie,
Vice President Mike Pence had to step in to decide the vote as the
president of the Senate. He
cast his tie-breaking vote in favor of DeVos to officially confirm her as education secretary. This was the first tie decided by a vice president on any vote in the Senate since the
George W. Bush administration.
Staffing DeVos said that on the basis of her first few days in the job, she had concerns that some Education Department employees were sympathetic to the
Obama administration. "I . . . would not be surprised if there are also those that would try to subvert the mission of this organization and this department," she stated. Asked what she could do about that, she said, "Whatever can be done will be done, and it will be done swiftly and surely." In April 2017, DeVos praised the president's nomination of
Carlos G. Muñiz as the department's
general counsel. In April 2017, DeVos named
Candice Jackson Deputy Assistant Secretary in the department's
Office for Civil Rights, where she will be acting assistant secretary while that higher, Senate-confirmed appointment is vacant. DeVos named Jason Botel Deputy Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education. In October 2018, it was announced that DeVos's chief of staff, Josh Venable, would be replaced by Nate Bailey, who at that time was DeVos's chief of communications. Two years later, Venable joined an anti-Trump group, the
Republican Political Alliance for Integrity and Reform (REPAIR), which is led by former White House officials.
Policy actions School choice and private schools In February 2017, DeVos released a statement calling
historically black colleges "real pioneers when it comes to school choice", causing controversy as some pointed out the schools originated after segregation laws prevented African Americans from attending others. DeVos later acknowledged racism as an important factor in the history of historically black colleges. On March 24, 2017, during a visit to the
Osceola County campus of
Valencia College, DeVos said she was considering the extension of federal financial aid for students that were year-round and interested in placing more focus on community colleges. DeVos delivered her first extended policy address on March 29, 2017, at the
Brookings Institution which included the topic of school choice which has been her main advocacy issue for more than 30 years. She stated an interest in implementing choice policies directed toward children as individuals and criticizing the Obama administration's additional funding of $7 billion for the U.S.'s worst-performing schools as "throwing money at the problem" in an attempt to find a solution. On May 22, 2017, DeVos announced the Trump administration was offering "the most ambitious expansion" of school choice within American history. DeVos cited
Indiana (which has the U.S.'s largest
school voucher program) as a potential model for a nationwide policy but did not give specific proposals. In a May 2017 House of Representatives committee hearing, Rep.
Katherine Clark, said an Indiana private school which takes publicly funded vouchers maintains it is entitled to deny admission to LGBTQ students or those coming from families with "homosexual or bisexual activity." Clark asked if she would inform Indiana that it could not discriminate in that way if it accepted federal funding and asked her how she would respond in the event a voucher school rejected black students but a state "said it was okay." DeVos answered: "Well again, the Office of Civil Rights and our
Title IX protections are broadly applicable across the board, but when it comes to parents making choices on behalf of their students..." Clark stopped her saying, "This isn't about parents making choices, this is about the use of federal dollars. Is there any situation? Would you say to Indiana, that school cannot discriminate against LGBT students if you want to receive federal dollars? Or would you say the state has the flexibility?" DeVos responded: "I believe states should continue to have flexibility in putting together programs ..." CBS reporter
Lesley Stahl questioned DeVos, in a March 2018
60 Minutes interview, about the documented failure of the DeVos programs to demonstrate a positive result, in Michigan, her home state: "Your argument that if you take funds away that the schools will get better is not working in Michigan ... where you had a huge impact and influence over the direction of the school system." Stahl added, "The public schools here are doing worse than they did." DeVos was unable to provide any actual examples of improvement, but stated there were "pockets" where schools had done better than public schools. On June 6, 2017, DeVos said
states' rights would determine private schools being allocated funds by the federal government during an appearance before members of a House appropriations committee.
Student loans On April 11, 2017, DeVos undid several Obama administration policy memos issued by
John King Jr. and Ted Mitchell which were designed to protect
student loan borrowers. On July 6, 2017, Democratic attorneys-general in 18 states and Washington, D.C., led by Massachusetts attorney-general
Maura Healey, filed a federal lawsuit against DeVos for suspending the implementation of rules that were meant to protect students attending for-profit colleges. The rules, developed during the Obama administration, were meant to take effect on July 1, 2017. On September 12, 2018, DeVos lost the lawsuit brought by 19 states and the District of Columbia, which accused the Department of Education of improperly delaying implementation of regulations protecting student loan borrowers from predatory practices.
Coronavirus pandemic During the
coronavirus pandemic, DeVos directed millions of dollars of coronavirus relief funds from the
Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act intended for public schools and colleges, to private and religious schools. DeVos pushed for schools to re-open while coronavirus cases were still surging in large parts of the country. She said that the Trump administration was considering pulling funding from public schools unless they provided full-time in person learning during the pandemic. On July 12, 2020, she said "there's nothing in the data that suggests that kids being in school is in any way dangerous to them", an assertion that public health experts disputed.
Other On June 2, 2017, DeVos announced her support of President Trump's decision to withdraw from the
Paris Agreement the prior day. On July 13, 2017,
Candice Jackson, who is a sexual assault survivor, organized a meeting with DeVos, college sexual assault victims, accused assailants, and higher education officials, and said she would look at policies on sexual assault accusations on campuses from the Obama administration to see if accused students were treated within their rights. Asked by
CBS 60 Minutes reporter
Lesley Stahl about her repeal of
Obama administration guidelines for colleges dealing with reports of sexual assaults, she said her concern was for men falsely accused of such assaults. "Survivors, victims of a lack of due process, and campus administrators have all told me that the current approach does a disservice to everyone involved," said DeVos. In October 2017, DeVos revoked 72
guidance documents of the
Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services which outlined the rights of disabled students under the
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and the
Rehabilitation Act. In a January 2018 speech, DeVos said that the
American Federation of Teachers (AFT) found that "60 percent of its teachers reported having moderate to no influence over the content and skills taught in their own classrooms." In response, AFT noted that in the same survey of around 5,000 educators, 86% felt that DeVos had disrespected them. In March 2018, DeVos announced a
School Safety Commission, to provide meaningful and actionable recommendations. Members were four Cabinet members, including herself. The organization held a meeting on March 28 and a gathering of school shooting survivors and families on April 17. in August 2019 In late May 2018, DeVos said that she believed it was "a school decision" on whether to report a student's family to the
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) if the student or their family are undocumented immigrants. However, under
Plyler v. Doe, the American Supreme Court ruled under the US constitution, schools are obligated to provide schooling irrespective of immigration status. The
American Civil Liberties Union has said that because of this, it would be unconstitutional for schools to report students or their families to ICE. In 2019, DeVos unsuccessfully attempted to cut federal funding for the
Special Olympics from her department's budget, which she had also attempted to cut in her previous two annual budgets.
Protests and security DeVos was a controversial figure throughout her tenure. Subsequent to the incident, the
U.S. Marshals Service, rather than Education Department employees, began providing security for her. Education Department officials declined requests for information about the deployment of marshals or the current tasks of the Secretary's displaced security team normally assigned to her. Many of those security personnel are former Secret Service agents who have worked at the department for many years. Regarding the withdrawal of the department's team, former Education Secretary
Arne Duncan said, "That's a waste of taxpayer money." During her first visit to a public university on April 6, 2017, DeVos was confronted by around 30 protestors. She was touring an area designed to resemble a hospital ward at
Florida International University. The following day, the U.S. Marshals Service said after a threat evaluation was conducted in February that DeVos would be given additional security, projecting a cost of $7.8 million between February and September 2017. On May 10, 2017, DeVos gave a
commencement speech at
Bethune–Cookman University, a
historically black college, and during her speech a majority of the students booed DeVos, with about half of them standing up and turning their backs to her. She also received an
honorary doctorate from the university.
Legal issues According to DeVos's 2018 financial disclosure form certified by the
Office of Government Ethics on December 3, 2018, she had not divested from twenty-four assets required under her signed ethics agreement nearly 22 months after being confirmed in February 2017. In May 2019, the Education Department inspector general released a report concluding that DeVos had used personal email accounts to conduct government business and that she did not properly preserve these emails. In September 2020, it was reported that the
Office of the Special Counsel had investigated DeVos over potential violations of the
Hatch Act after she appeared on Fox News during the 2020 election campaign, where she attacked Democratic Party presidential nominee
Joe Biden. After her television appearance, the Department of Education promoted her Fox News interview.
Resignation On January 7, 2021, DeVos resigned from her position as Secretary of Education after the January 6
U.S. Capitol riots. She said in her letter to
President Trump that the riots had overshadowed the accomplishments of his administration. She was the second cabinet member to resign following the insurrection, the first being
Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao. Hours after her resignation, Senator
Elizabeth Warren later called her the worst Secretary of Education on
Twitter, saying she never did anything to help students, and saying she would rather quit than invoke the
Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution to remove Trump from office. == Philanthropy and activism ==