Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Wednesday promised employees of the department she will now lead, “I’m here with you, alongside you, to serve our students.”
DeVos was introduced to the agency by former Acting Secretary Philip Rosenfelt, and was flanked by the transition team just a day after her bruising confirmation process was finished in the Senate.
DeVos was strongly opposed by teachers unions and others who feared the school choice advocate would gut the department from the inside. She seemed eager to allay those concerns.
“I’m an open-door person who listens more than I speak,” she said. “I will listen to each of you on your ideas on how we can do better for students. You are professionals whom I respect.”
The new secretary also acknowledged the tough confirmation fight that led to her being approved by a razor-thin 51-50 vote that needed Vice President Mike Pence to break the deadlock. She did not receive a single Democratic vote.
“For me, personally, this confirmation process and the drama it engendered has been a bit of a bear,” DeVos told department employees.
“DeVos isn’t an educator, or an education leader. She’s not an expert in pedagogy or curriculum or school governance,” protested the Detroit Free Press in an editorial opposing her nomination. “In fact, she has no relevant credentials or experience for a job setting standards and guiding dollars for the nation’s public schools.”
The paper called her a “lobbyist” who “has used her extraordinary wealth to influence the conversation about education reform” according to her own ideological agenda.
A former Michigan Republican Party chairwoman, Republican National Committee member and wife of a past Amway CEO, DeVos came under sharp Democratic criticism for her political, religious and education policy views.
Liberals accused DeVos of wanting to privatize public education through school vouchers and charter schools.
DeVos’ performance at her hearings were widely panned. When two Republican senators came out against her nomination, Democrats began to view her as their best chance to derail one of President Trump’s nominees. But they couldn’t get a third Republican defection and Attorney General-Designate Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., remained in the Senate to vote for her.
DeVos, who never endorsed Trump during the campaign, noted the hard-fought general election too.
“We’ve just come through one of the most bruising, divisive elections in modern times,” she said. “The rhetoric and words can get hot and heated. But we are resilient.”
Past Republican platforms have called for abolishing the Department of Education. President Reagan’s first education secretary, Terrel Bell, was appointed with that goal but came to oppose getting rid of the department.
DeVos sounded a conciliatory tone, saying, “I know I’m the newbie.”
“Let us set aside preconceived notions,” she told department staff. “We can and must come together, find common ground and put the needs of students first.”
“I’m ready to work with you,” DeVos pledged. “Let’s get started.”
