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Thompson Urges Senate to Reject DeVos

January 30, 2017

Washington – Today, Rep. Mike Thompson (CA-05) urged his colleagues in the Senate to reject the President's choice of Betsy DeVos for Secretary of the Department of Education.

"Throughout her testimony, Ms. DeVos displayed a troubling failure to grasp even the basics of education policy," said Thompson. "Last year, Congress came together to make bipartisan, bicameral reforms to our education system. It would be tragic to see those efforts undermined or undone completely by someone so plainly unqualified for the job. We hold our students to standards before giving them a passing grade. We should do no differently for our Education Secretary. I urge the Senate to reject Ms. DeVos and insist the President nominate someone up to the task."

DeVos has no professional experience in education. Her advocacy work has often undermined the very public schools she would represent as Secretary. During her testimony, she also appeared unaware of the differences between measuring growth versus measuring proficiency—a question that has dominated education policy for decades.

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Issues:Education