Besty DeVos confirmed as secretary of education.

Besty DeVos was confirmed to be the nation’s education secretary on Tuesday with the help of Vice President Mike Pence in breaking the tie between votes supporting her and votes opposing her. According to the New York Times, “it was the first time a vice president has been summoned to the Capitol to break a tie on a cabinet nomination”. The result upsets a lot of people. They believe that Besty DeVos is not suitable for the position which controls the national education system.

“Senators and education advocates from both sides of the aisle also expressed concern after Ms. DeVos, during her Jan. 17 confirmation hearing, confused core responsibilities of the department.”- The New York Times

Besty DeVos comes from a wealthy background. Neither she nor her children attended public schools. She is unfamiliar with the public school system, and she does not have enough knowledge to know what will be effective for public schools and what will not. Ms. DeVos’ main focus is expanding funds for charter schools and vouchers, which allow students to use taxpayer dollars to pay tuition at private, religious and for-profit schools. However, expanding the funds will require the reallocation of federal education money. Many people fear that she could take away the money needed for public schools in need of federal funding. Moreover, the poor performance of Detroit’s charter schools which Besty DeVos championed has created distrust in her abilities to do the job. The teacher association, which strongly opposed to her, have said they “would continue to fight her as she serves”.

This article is important to a lot of students because the issue has a direct affect on anyone who is in school, particularly in the rural areas that do not have private schools or charter schools available. Most private schools and charter schools are in the urban areas. Therefore,  students in rural areas must attend public schools. If funding for public schools is cut, then the schools will continue to get worse. It is worth reading because the article provides details about Besty DeVos’ background, her prior interests, and her lack of experience in dealing with public education, all of which affect her ability to be the secretary of education.