Nominated during the insane first two weeks of the Trump administration, one of the most controversial cabinet nominees to be confirmed in the Senate is Betsy DeVos for Secretary of Education. DeVos,  a Michigan millionaire who has been involved in past GOP elections and is an advocate for charter schools, was nominated for the position by then-President-elect Trump.

When the U.S. Senate is presented with such a horrendous candidate as Betsy DeVos, they are almost always sworn in if their respective party is in control of Congress. The numbers were not in the favor of defeating DeVos, as stated by Senator Al Franken, all 46 Democrats and two Left-leaning Independents would vote no on DeVos, adding up to a total of 48 ¨no¨ votes, not enough to put an end to her strife to privatize education.

On Wed., Feb. 1, an announcement was made which may have turned her confirmation around. Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, two Republican Senators, have announced that they will not vote to confirm DeVos. This brings the total up to 50; if no more Republicans join the fight against her, Vice President Pence will surely cast the tie breaking vote in her favor. Americans stand on both sides of the education debate. Personally, I find it amazing that Republican Senators are so concerned about how they are viewed in relation to the interest of the party that they usually refuse to vote against a clearly inept, possibly disastrous, candidate. There was hope for those who were against DeVos- thousands of citizens have contacted their senators, pleading with them to vote against her nomination- one Utahan going as far as to deliver a pizza to Senator Orrin Hatch´s office with a note because she could not find a way to contact him otherwise.

However, Democrats were not able to gain any more traction, resulting in the second instance where the Vice President broke a tie vote in the Senate- and the first with a Cabinet nominee. Now that Betsy DeVos is our Secretary of Education, here are some alarming aspects of her past career highlighted during her hearing on Jan. 17:

• Her seemingly utter lack of experience in public education (as pointed out by Sen. Warren), and the fact that neither she nor her children attended public schooling.
• She is in favor of privatizing public education and directing funding towards Christian private schools; thus, directing funding away from public schools
• Her family, according to a question from Sen. Sanders, has donated over $200,000,000 to the Republican party over the years (which he stated to imply that she has bought her way into the position and is not qualified)
• DeVos appears to not know the difference between growth and proficiency- a commonly debated issue of education (whether students simply meet a proficiency standard, or if they should be measured by how much they have grown)
• When asked by Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, whose state was devastated by the Sandy Hook school shooting several years ago, if guns have a place in schools, she not only refused to answer the question directly but responded with a ridiculous answer: that guns should be in schools to ¨protect from potential grizzlies¨. Murphy later tweeted that he is ¨shaken to the core¨ that she could not give him a definitive answer and ¨so should every American parent¨.
• She expresses ignorance towards the Disabilities Education Act, and would not respond to Senator Maggie Hassan´s question on the issue, saying that it is ¨an issue best left to the states¨.

We can only wait- and hope for the best- as we see how her term ensues. Her questionably harmful views and lack of experience, combined with the fact that she gave money to many Republican Senators who voted for her, suggest a potentially disastrous regime ahead as she becomes closer to her goal of privatizing education and defunding public schools. Even if you agree with her views, she clearly does not have the experience or competence to be tasked with one of the most important jobs in the nation: preparing children for the future in a drastically changing world.