Transcripts For CNNW Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer 20170117

Prosperous future. Craftsmanship is not a fallback but a noble pursuit. Students should make informs choices about what type of education they want to pursue posthigh school and have access to highquality options. President elect trump and i agree we need to support all postsecondary avenues including trade and vocational schools and community colleges, of course, on every one of these issues, congress will play a vital role. If confirmed, i look forward to working with you to enact solutions that empower parents and students, provide highquality options and spend tax dollars wisely. Well Work Together to ensure the every Student Succeeds act is implemented as congress intended with local communities freed from burdensome regulations from washington and i look forward to working with congress and all stakeholders to reauthorize the Higher Education act to meet the needs of todays college students. President elect trump and i know it wont be washington, d. C. , that unlocks our nations potential. Nor a bigger bureaucracy, tougher mandates, or a federal agency. The answer is local control and listening to parents, students and teachers. For nearly three decades, ive been involved in education as a volunteer and advocate for children and a voice for parentparent s. Ive worked as an inschool mentor in the grand Rapids Public Schools and had the privilege of interacting with parents, families and teachers in ways that have changed my life and perspective about education forever. Ive worked with governors, legislators and business and Community Leaders to expand Educational Opportunity through options that are making a lifetime of difference for hundreds of thousands of kids this year alone. And ive worked with many dead ka dedicated teachers who strive every day to help students achieve, fulfill their potential and the global challenges they will face. For me, its simple. I trust parents and i believe in our children. Thank you, again, for the opportunity to appear before you. I look forward to answering your questions. Thank you, mrs. Devos. Well now begin our round of fiveminute questions. Im going to defer my questions until later. Well begin with senator enzi then to senator murray. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, mrs. Devos. I want to welcome you here and thank you for being willing to take on this kind of a project and to appear before us. I enjoyed our meeting last month and look forward to working with you as we consider your nomination and then after that. Youre going to be dealing with a Great Variety of states from high population to low population. I happen to come from the lowest population state. It has some special challenges in education, call it rural and frontier challenges. We dont allow a child to travel more than an hour by bus to or from school. And as a result, we have some schools that have one or two students. Its a little different situation that was even envisioned with no child left behind so im glad weve chased to essa. The federal government Quality Counts 2017 report, im pleased that wyoming was ranked number seven out of the 50 states in that and in the area of financing education, we were number one. And that comes at a time when our states going through some economical suffering because of the obama administrations war on coal and fossil fuels and hardworking families that support those industries. But rural frontier has some special problems. Part of them are that the submission of some of the applications and some of the applicable reports have no bearing on what were doing. And thats important when we have the rural aspect as well as the wind river indian reservation which has the home of two tribes. When every Student Succeeds, there are provisions to permit the secretary to reduce the departme departments workforce. With the return of Educational Authority to the states and the elimination of federal programs, its important that workforce be reduced to ensure more educational funding is provided to the schools and not kept in washington. Also im troubled by the Government Accountability Office Report that was issued at my request last november that showed the cost projections for the incomedriven College Loan Repayment program are tens of billions of dollars higher than the original estimates. And those estimates were based on data and accounting methods that were deeply flawed. Youll inherit that in the Current Department of educations data lack transparency omitted, key information, made other flawed assumptions. As an accountant, i was appalled. Then theres the career and Technical Education that you mentioned. I appreciate your emphasis on the value of craftsmanship and also technology. I just saw the movie Hidden Figures that introduced people to computers and the value of women in the workplace in nasa to get them into space. I have onesixth of my schools that dont participate in perkins career Technical Education funding because the low population gives them such a low amount of funding that it isnt worth doing it and that needs to change. Mrs. Devos, one of the most important jobs youll have is the implementation of every Student Succeeds act. Im pleased with what you said about it. Can you talk about your plans to engage rural and frontier state and communities in that process . Senator, thank you for that question. I, too, enjoyed our meeting in your office. I particularly enjoyed hearing a little bit about the special needs of schools like the wappatee school has has the grizzly bear fence sir rouurrou it, a unique need to wyoming certainly. Certainly rural schools in rural settings require different approaches and different options and so i refer to the every Student Succeeds act and i think the implementation of that and the wyomings plan for that will be particularly important to recognize the unique needs of the rural population that you have as will many of the other states represented here in the committee. And when we think about the future, i think about the opportunity for more choices and options for those parents at a Distance Learning type of a situation. And the possibility that, you know, course choices or online courses could be offered in ways that they may not have been previously, and i would, if confirmed, look forward to working with you and some of your other colleagues that face those same types of challenges such as senator collins and senator murkowski and work with you to address the specific needs of Rural Communities and rural high rural population states. Thank you. Look forward to working with you. Thank you, senator enzi. Senator murray . Mr. Chairman, its your committee, if you want to go first. No, im thank you for the courtesy. Im going to go a little later. Thank you. Okay. Miss devos, i really am troubled by some of the comments and things you said about Public Education and how you see the role of the department youve been nominated to lead now. My first question for you really is yes or no, all i want is a yes or no. Do i believe the mission of the department of education should be to strengthen Public Education for all of our students . Yes, i do. Good. So can you commit to us tonight that you will not work to privatize Public Schools or cut a single penny from Public Education . Senator, thanks for that question. I look forward if confirmed to working with you to talk about how we address the needs of all parents and all students. We acknowledged today that not all schools are working for the students that are assigned to them. Im hopeful we can Work Together to find Common Ground and ways that we can solve those issues and empower parents to make choices on behalf of their children that are right for them. I take that as not being willing to commit to not privatizing Public Schools. Youre cutting money from education. Well, i guess i wouldnt characterize it in that way. Well, okay. Let me ask you about conflict of interest. President elect trump thinks he can resolve his financial conflicts by having his family manage his interests while hes in office. Do you think its okay for family members to profit off Companies Directly impacted by the decisions you will make if confirmed . Yes or no . No, i do not. We do know from press reports you and your family have invested in what you call the education industry. That includes investments in sofi, a student Loan Refinancing company and k12 inc. , a chain of forprofit online Charter Schools. You told this committee youd sever ties with your Family Businesses if confirmed but also said you intend to return to these businesses owned by your family when you leave public service. How is that different from president elect trumps arrangement . Senator, first of all, let me be very clear about any conflicts. Where conflicts are identified, they will be resolved. I will not be conflicted, period. I commit that to you all. And with respect to the specific ones that you cited, one of them we were aware of as we entered the process and that is in the process of being divested. Where if there are any others that are identified, they will be appropriately divested as well. So from your answer, i assume that you and your family intend to forego all investments in Education Companies from now on . Anything that is deemed to be a conflict will not be yes, will not be a part of our investing. Okay. How do you intend to convince this committee that no entity will feel pressure to purchase, partner or contract with corporate or nonprofit entities you and your family invested in should you be confirmed as secretary . I can commit to you that nobody will feel any pressure like that. Well, as you know, this committee has not received your required paperwork from the office of government ethics, and they have told me they cannot provide me assurance right now that your conflicts of interest have been identified and resolved by the office. So, again, will you be providing this committee with three years of tax returns . That weve requested . Senator, i have provided the committee with everything thats been requested and required of the committee and im frankly very proud of the team thats been working very hard on my behalf to get all of this together and i know the oge is working very hard to work through my and others confirmation processes as well. As is the department. Im very hopeful that we will get this resolved and to a point of resolution here very soon. Since we do not have your ethics paperwork tonight, weve not had a chance to look at it, weve not had a chance to know whether we have additional questions. Would you commit to coming back before this committee once we have that from the oge so we can ask additional questions . I commit to having making sure we have ethics ethics agreement resolved and reached. Well, i hope that we have a chance, mr. Chairman, if we have questions to be able to follow up on that. I just have a few seconds left. You have vast wealth, obviously, and you have used it as you have said, yourself, to influence the political system and elect candidates who support your ideological agenda. If you are confirmed, i want to know if you believe its appropriate for you and your family to continue to use its wealth to pressure state, local and federal candidates to support your agenda . Senator, as if im confirmed, as you know, i will not be involved and engaged in political contributions and i my husband will not be, either. Okay. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. Thank you, senator murray. Senator burr deferred to senator isaacson. Thank you, chair, mr. Chairman. Thank you, mrs. Devos, for your commitment to your state, your commitment to education and being here today. Congratulations on your nomination. I have a statement and would like to ask you three questions in regard to that statement. This Committee Established a task force on government regulation and identified 59 specific burdensome regulations that engaged Public Education, pry maimarily Higher Education. Of the 59 recommendations, 12 are totally at the office of the secretary of education, they can be validated and changed immediately. In 2015, senators bennett, king, booker, burr, alexander an myself introduced a bill to simplify the burdensome application process, Financial Aid. Three wellknown institution in my state have all said this is a priority for them to move forward and sitmplify, getting our kids the best education they can get. Would you work with the office to advance the senator, thanks for that question. Im aware of this Task Force Report and it sounds like the direction that its taken is very promising and if confirmed i look forward to working with you and the others who have been working on this to implement the things that are deemed appropriate to be done. Will you work with us and commit to us that youll work with us to implement those items identified by the task force, the secretary, himself, or herself, currently has the authority to change, meaning this wont be another government report that goes on the shelf, one that will be acted on one way or another . You have my commitment on that, senator. Lastly, will you work with this committee to simplify the application for federal Financial Aid known as fafsa, reduce the burden of application, families, easier to apply to college and to attend college . Indeed, i will. I know thats been a very burdensome process in the application, in fact, i recall chairman alexanders actually unfolding the entire length of it. Its a very long process and i would look forward to working with you to 104 questions. I remember correctly, mr. Chairman. 104 questions. The committee came up with a twopage, fourquestion application that worked just as will, so its an important way to improve attending college and getting financing done. I dont think we should make it any more difficult than absolutely necessary for students to be able to further their education. Right question. Is mr. Boy here . Yes, indeed. Hes right here. Could you stand up . I want to thank you for when youve done to show the leadership we need to help people who otherwise dont get any help, may be discarded through lifes disposal. Youve done a great job with Potters House. We have a number of have georgia investments in Potters House. Appreciate what youve done. Thank you. This brings me to this point, senator murray was talking about privatizing schools and talking about the importance of lack of importance of Charter Schools and importance of protecting Public Education. She talked about her goal, my goal, which weve shared with each other, work toward requiring 4yearold prekindergarten for every student in the country. Its important for the Early Learning years for kids to get access. We did it in georgia. How we did it in georgia was taking faithbased educational 4yearold prekindergarten programs and private 4yearold prekindergarten programs and private institution to provide us with the classrooms and teachers to teach the curriculum in the new program. Today in georgia 61,000 4yearold kids go to prekindergarten delivered by the state, paid for by a variety of Public Institutions and entities. If youre going to meet the challenges of Public Education today and have to defend solely on the Resources Available to it, youll never get where you want to go. If you get the private sector making an investment in education and have seamless standards that everybody commits to, you can greatly expand the accessibility of education and do it through using faithbased, private and other type institutions. Would you agree with that is. I think its a very interesting approach and that georgia has taken and its very similar to what florida has done as well. As the essa act is implemented, i think were really entrusting for states to take a look at some other successful programs and i would also look forward to working with the other agencies that are involved with some of the preschool funding of head start and so forth, hhs, and see if theres ways to more effectively use those moneys to help kids be ready for kindergarten when they reach kindergarten. My time is up. I just want to acknowledge in reading your testimony, talking to you in my office, i appreciate your recognition that the nontraditional student, of 25 years ago, has become the traditional student of today. Not every kid lives in a twoparent household, not every kid lives in an academic environment. We have to come up with programs necessary to train our kids to be able to do the jobs of the 21st century in different ways all the time. Congratulations on your nomination. I yield back, plchl chairman. Thank you, senator isakson. Thank you for being with us, thanks for dropping into the office a few days ago. Thank you, senator. Mrs. Devos, there is a growing fear, i think, in this country that we are moving toward what some would call an oligarchy form of society, a small number of very, very wealthy billionaires control to a significant degree our economic and political life. Would you be so kind as to tell us how much money your family has contributed to the Republican Party over the years . Senator, first of all, thank you for that question. I i, again, was pleased to meet you in your office last week. I wish i could give you u ththa number. I dont know. Ive heard the number is 200 million. Does that sound in the ballpark . Collectively over the years, yes. Between my entire family, thats possible. My question is, i dont mean to be rude, but do you think if you were not a multibillionaire, if your family has not made hundreds of millions of dollars of contributions to the Republican Party, that you would be sitting here today . Senator, as a matter of fact, i do think that there would be that possibility. Ive worked very hard on behalf of parents and children for the last almost 30 years to be a voice for parents and to a voice for students and to empower parents to make decisions on behalf of their children primarily lowincome children. Thank you. In your statement, your prepared statement, you say, i quote, students should make informs choices about what type of education they want to pursue posthigh school and have access to highquality options. Some of us believe that we should make public colleges and universities tuitionfree so that every young person in this country, regardless of income, does have that option. Thats not the case today. Will you work with me and others to make public colleges and universities tuitionfree through federal and state efforts . Senator, i think thats a really interesting idea, and its really great to consider and think about, but i think we also have to consider the fact that theres nothing in life thats truly free. Somebodys going to be pay for it. Well, yes, youre right. Youre right. Somebody will pay for it but that takes us to another issue. And that is, if i may, and that is right now we have proposals in front of us to substantially lower tax breaks for billionaires in this country while at the same time lowincome kids cant afford to go to college. You think that makes sense . Senator, i think if your question is really around how can we help college and Higher Education be more affordable for young people as they anticipate actually that wasnt my question. My question is, should we make public colleges and universities tuitionfree so that every family in america, regardless of income, will have the ability to have their kids get a Higher Education . That was my question. Senator, i think we can Work Together and we could work hard on making sure that college or Higher Education in some form is affordable for all young people that want to pursue it. I would look forward to that opportunity if confirmed. Would you agree with me that if there is a mom watching this hearing who makes 30,000, 40,000 a year, single mom, perhaps, who has to pay 10,000 or 15,000 a year for childcare for her daughter, that that is a burden that is almost impossible to deal with . What are your proposals about making childcare universal for our working families . Do you have ideas on that . Do you agree with that idea . That certainly is a burden and while and i can understand the challenge that that family, that young mother, would face in deciding how to best serve her childs needs. Again, i think if were talking about the future of that child and their education, i would look forward to working with you. I know we have Common Ground on a lot of things and could find ways to Work Together to ensure that that young moms child will have a great opportunity for a great education in the future. There are countries around the world which do provide universal, very inexpensive, or free childcare. Would you work with me in moving our government in that direction . Senator, again, i feel very strongly about the importance of young families having an opportunity for good childcare for their children. Im not sure that its not a question of an opportunity. Its a question of being able to very often, my republican friends talk about opportunity. Its not a question of opportunity. Its a question of being able to afford it. How do we help somebody whos making 8 or 9 bucks an hour at a time we cant raise minimum wage because of republican opposition, how can we make sure the moms get Quality Childcare they can afford . I look forward to helping that mom getting a quality education for their child or their children so they could look forward to a bright and hopeful future. Thank you very much. Thank you, senator sanders. Were going next to senator hatch. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Certainly happy to have you here, miss devos. I appreciate your abilities that you exemplified, the work of your family, the care that you have for education, the hard work that youve done. I have to say, very few people in this country can even come close to what youve done. Let me just say, i welcome you to the committee. Its a pleasure to consider your nomination. I appreciate your commitment to expanding opportunities for all children and your tireless work in the field of education. Your record of services is in line with utah values, especially your commitment to restoring local autonomy over schools. Those closest to students know truth, you have championed as a reformer. This committees support and passage of the every Student Succeeds act illustrates these values are not unique to you and me, instead shared by many of my colleagues who care for education as a reality. All i can say is many of my colleagues selections for this position have worked very hard to try and make sure that good people are in these positions. Not just people of stereotypical education, but those who might bring really new things to the forefront. And i hope all i can say is that weve helped many of our colleagues to usher weve ushered them through this process on both sides of the floor and i hope my colleagues will extend the same courtesy to you. I also believe in extending president ial selections, benefit of the doubt, recognizing, for example, that a persons views as a private citizen do not necessarily reflect their future actions as a holder of public office. From my private conversations with you, i trust that you will not have you will not force particular policies on states, unlike what some in education do. Your predecessors have come have done in some cases in violation of congressional intent. I also recognize that support for Parental Choice for all students is not an attack on Public Education. My children, grandchildren and greatgrandchildren have attended Public Education as a reality and i have to say that theyve attended these schools and i believe that you share my commitment to ensuring that every child receives a quality education, regardless of the type of school they attend. Now, i spent my entire service here fighting to make equity in education a reality and i believe that you will be an indispensable partner in this fight and i look nard forward t working with you on priorities that are important to the people of utah including increasing transparency, accountability and access to Higher Education, as well as increasing innovation and evidencebased reforms. Unlike others here who may be interested in attacking your donations, i know you want to do right by all children, so i will stick to focusing on how we can working to on sound policy. Right now the department of education does not have a uniform measure for describing whether borrowers are repaying their loans. According to the confusion, the department is usiing a differen borrower repayment Rate Methodology for each policy it comes up with. The uniform metric might prove helpful in making Information Available to congress. The Higher Education community and the public about the success of former students in repaying their federal student loan debts. This information could also tell us the extent to which Student Loan Repayment rates vary across institutions. I believe students should have access to a wide variety of data when choosing a school just like they would when choosing a car. Greater access to information would lead to wise decisionmaking when choosing an institution. Now do you support increasing transparency and, you know, transparency regarding loan results for students and parents to use when deciding upon a Postsecondary School . Senator, thank you. Thank you for that question and your kind comments. I agree with you 100 that the issue of student debt and the amount of student debt, over 1. 3 trillion right now, up almost 1,000 in the last 8 years, its a very serious issue and one which we all have to, i think, pay very close attention to and resolve in some way and if confirmed, i certainly will look forward to working with you and your colleagues on ways to get after this issue, the issue of the cost of education as well as Debt Repayment kind of go hand in hand and i will look forward to working with you and your colleagues should i be confirmed. Thank you so much. I hope youll be confirmed. I think youll make a great secretary. Thank you, senator hatch. Senator casey. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much. Put me on record as asking for a second round as well. I know thats under consideration. Miss devos its not under consideration but ill be glad to put you on record. Well keep trying. Miss devos, thank you for being here. Appreciate you and your family being with us tonight. I wanted to start with a basic questions, would you agree with me that the problem, and thats an understatement, in my judgment, but the problem of Sexual Assault on College Campuses is a significant problem that we should take action on . Senator, thank you for that question. I agree with you that Sexual Assault in any form or in any place is a problem and no disagreement there. Second question is would you uphold let me give you a little background here that you might know, in 2011 the department of education issued guidance on title 9 by this administration, the current administration. I ask you, would you uphold that 2011 title 9 guidance as it relates to Sexual Assault on campus . Senator, i know that theres a lot of conflicting ideas and opinions around that guidance and if confirmed, i would look forward to working with you and your colleagues and understand the range of opinions and understand the issues from the Higher Ed Institutions that are charged with resolving these and addressing them and i would look forward to working together to find some resolutions. I agree with the guidance, so im just asking for a yes or no. I guess youre not going to give me a yesorno answer on committing to upholding that guidance. It would be premature for me to do that today. This problem is, to say its an epidemic i think is also an understatement. The centers for Disease Control told us back in 2009 that one in five women are the victims of Sexual Assault on campus and yet a lot of those women who were in that one in five never have an opportunity or never report incidents. Its a major in so many ways, its the ultimate betrayal. Parents, for generations, have told their daughters study hard in school, get good grades, because when you get good grades, you might have an opportunity to go to college and if you go to college, the world is open to you. And you can succeed by having Higher Education. But too often, it happens every year on many campuses around the country, too often a young woman is a victim, sometimes in the first day shes there, the first week, and sometimes over the course of her first year, and her life is destroyed by that. So we have to long way to go to addressing this problem. We took some good action on this issue, as part of the violence against women act. It just happened to be my bill that got passed into law, the socalled campus save act. What we did in that bill was for the first time say to colleges and universities, you have to do more than youre doing. Certainly on one broad topic of prevention and on awareness. So young men on the campus who are the perpetrators of this have to be part of the solution. They have to be part of bystander education, a preventative strategy. But in addition to all kinds of transparency and requirements, this is what the act did for women, or for victims, i should say, or victims of assault. Colleges and universities must provide clear statements regarding the procedures followed. They must do more than they had been doing when it comes to enforcement, and in particular with regard to victims, it says the College University must indicate to the victim her right to notify Law Enforcement should the victim choose to, that the obligation the institution has an obligation to help the victim report the incident to Law Enforcement including helping her get a protective order. Among other things that the school has to do. So thats what the law is now, based upon my bill. The fall of 2015, this went into effect across the country. Theres an Organization Called the foundation for individual rights and education. They support a bill that would totally change that. They would force a victim to go to Police Departments to report and they would change the standard of evidence. Would you commit, as secretary of education, to retaining the standard of evidence that is currently the law . Senator, let me just say, my moms heart is really piqued on this issue. Assault in any form is never okay. I want to be very clear on that. So if confirmed, i look forward to understanding the past actions and the Current Situation better and to ensuring the intent of the law is actually carried out in a way that is the organization that recognizes both the victim, the rights of the victims, as well as those who are accused as well and that the im out of time. The organization that has that position, which is contrary to the law, current law, and contrary to the spirit of what we try to do in that piece of legislation, is the recipient of donations from you totaling about 25,000 bucks over 4 years. I hope, i hope thats not a conflict of interest, but i would hope that you would make a definitive commitment as the nominee to enforce the law as it relates to Sexual Assault on campuses and ill send you more questions about it. Thank you, start. Thank you, senator casey. Senator paul. Congratulations, miss devos. Thanks for your testimony. I grew up and went to Public Schools and got a great education and a big fan of Public Schools. My kids have gone to Public Schools. But there are also some Public Schools that arent doing very well. Even the department of education says about half of them arent doing very well and of half the kids that are dropping out are kids of color. So i commend you for your work, trying to help lowerincome kids and trying to help everybody get a better education. I think the status quo just isnt really working. I have traveled to a lot of schools, though, and have been amazed at some of the schools. I went to st. Anthonys in milwaukee. Boys latin school in philadelphia. And just amazing success stories. And you see the success in front of you with 100 of the kids are going to college. Just Amazing Stories where, you know, 50 , 40 , 30 maybe of their contemporaries in their communities are going. There are great successes. I think we need to think about the kids. People get caught up in, oh, i dont want any religious schools, any private schools, and all of this, and its like, look at the kids and look at the success there. I think maybe in you tyke a cak couple minutes, things youve seen in michigan, schools youve either visited that are a success or some of what youve seen that has excited you about the potential that all these kids do have potential and we shouldnt leave them, you know, behind. Thank you, senator. Thanks for that opportunity. I would love to talk about some of the schools and some of the individuals that i have seen benefit from the success of being able to choose the right educational setting and ive already mentioned the Potters House school and john boy whos with us today, thats a school i regularly visit. The students there come from a multitude of different countries, speak many different languages and most of them are from very, very lowincome circumstances and its just amazing to see the transformation that those students have in going through their Potters House years. Theres another student here right behind me, denisha maryweather whom ive gotten to know the last several years who is a recipient of a Tax Credit Scholarship Program in the state of florida. She will tell you very promptly that she had a very troubled Early Childhood in her grade school years. I think she was kicked out multiple times before she her g godmother actually finally found a school that was going to work for her and the transformation was just almost overnight. Denisha is the first in her family to have graduated high school. Shes graduated college and in may shes going to get her masters in social work degree. So shes just a tremendous example of what can happen when you get when you get an opportunity to go to the right school. Nidia salazar is also here and she has her mom took her and emigrated from peru because of the opportunity she knew she would have a much greater opportunity to succeed and thrive and so nidia has been the beneficiary of a Tax Credit Scholarship Program in arizona and shes now in college and pursuing a Higher Education there. Those are two students, theres many schools that i see that are doing amazing things, actually trying new and innovative ways of approaching education for children and one of them id love to mention is called act academy, its truly a unique model in its totally student directed. They form their own constitution and theres no teacher in the classroom. Theres just a coach or a guide and the guide cannot answer questions. They can only pose a question back to the students. And the results from this act in academy are simply amazing and the school is actually proliferating pretty rapidly throughout the country, so those are just a few examples but i could give you dozens more. Well, in putting a face on it, meeting these kids and seeing theyre going to succeed and looking them in the eye, knowing these young ladies succeed is an amazing thing. For those who have this philosophic hatred for vouchers and School Choice and things, watch the movie waiting your superman and see the mom with tears down her face whose child got the lottery and won to get in a good school then the one who didnt get in and senator alexander and i went to a kip Charter School in nashville and met a young woman there. She got a full scholarship to boston college. Ill never forget, here we are, we like to talk to the media. The media didnt want to talk to us at all. They wanted to talk to this young lady, an amazing success story. I wish yoi you tu the best of l. Thank you. Thank you, senator. Thank you, senator paul. Senator franken. Im a member of the minnesota dfl party, the party that the chairman invoked at the beginning of this hearing. Charter schools are not the issue here. Minnesota is thoroughly in the mainstream. There are 37 states in this country that constitutionally prohibit the use of Public School money for religious schools. So it is a dfl party in minnesota, thank you very much, that is in the mainstream. And not our witness or the chairman. Senator lieberman mentioned proficiency in the just reminded me of this when i first got into the senate, 2009, i had a roundtable of principals and one of the principals in minnesota and he said, we think of the nclb test as autopsies. And i knew exactly what he meant because what he was saying is the students take the test in late april, if theyre lucky, they get them back in late june. The teachers cant use the results to inform their instruction. So i saw that minnesota, in addition to the nclb test, a lot of schools, a majority of schools, were taking a computer adaptive test. A computer test so you get the results right away and adaptive so that you can measure outside of grade level. And this is brings me to the issue of proficiency which senator cited versus growth. And i would like your views on the relative advantage of measuring, doing assessments and using them to measure proficiency or to measure growth. Thank you, senator, for that question. I think if im understanding your question correctly around proficiency, i would also correlate it to competency and mastery so that you, each student is measured according to the advancement that theyre making in each subject area well, thats growth. Thats not proficiencproficienc. So in other words, the growth theyre making isnt growth. The proficiency is arbitrary standard if they reached the level, proficiency if they reached a, like, third grade level for reading, et cetera. Im talking about the debate between proficiency and growth. Yes. What your thoughts are on that. Well, i was just asking to clarify then this is the subject that has been debated in the Education Community for years. And ive advocated growth as the chairman and every member of this committee knows because with proficiency looking back teachers ignore the kids at the top who are not going to fall below proficiency and ignore the kid at the bottom, no matter what they do will never get to proficiency. Ive been an advocate of growth. It surprises me you dont know this issue. Mr. Chairman, i think this is a good reason for us to have more questions because this is a very important subject, education. Our kids education. And i think were selling our kids short by not being able to have a debate on it. And i didnt know of any rule about this, you know, everyone gets one question and one other senator gets a question. I dont know where that rule comes from. Well, ill tell you where it comes from, senator franken. It comes from the Committee President and the way we treated president obamas nominees, john king, and the way we treated arne duncan and the way i was treated when i was a secretary. But im im applying the same rules to them, to secretary devos, or mrs. Devos i think were selling our kids short by not being able to ask followup questions and i was kind of surprised, well, im not that surprised, that you did not know this issue. Mrs. Devos, your family has a long history of supporting antilgbt causes including donating millions of dollars to groups that push conversion therapy. The practice of trying to change someones Sexual Orientation or gender identity. For example, you and your family have given over 10 million to focus on the family, an organization that currently states on its website that, homosexual strugglers can and do change their sexual behavior and identity. Mrs. Devos, conversion therapy has been widely discredited and rejected for decades by every mainstream medical and Mental Health organization as neither medically nor ethically appropriate. It has been shown to lead to depression, anxiety, drug use, homelessness, and suicide. Particularly in lgbt youth. In fact, many of the leaders and founders of conversion therapy, including both religious ministries and Mental Health professionals, have not only publicly renounced it, but have issued formal apologies for their work and how harmful it has been to the individuals involved. Mr. Chairman, i would ask that this be included in the record. It will be. Mrs. Devos, do you still believe in conversion therapy . Senator franken, ive never believed in that. First of all, let me say, i fully embrace equality and i believe in the innate value of every single human being and that all students, no matter their age, should be able to attend a school and feel safe and be free of discrimination. So lets start there. And let me just say that your characterization of contributions i dont think accurately reflects those of my family. I dont well, youve been i would hope you wouldnt include other family members beyond my core family. Well, in terms of throwing numbers around, you said that student debt has increased by 1,000 since 980 in 8 years. Im sorry . 980 . Thats just not so. Its increased 118 in the past 8 years. Well so, im just asking if youre challenging my figures, i would ask that you get your figures straight about education policy and thats why we want more questions. Because we want to know if this person that we are entrusting may encrust to be the secretary of education, if she has the breadth and depth of knowledge that we would expect from someone who has that important job. Thank you. Thank you, senator franken. I had as many disagreements with secretary king as you apparently do with mrs. Devos, and we ask were treating her in exactly the same way that we treated him. And i think thats what i would call the golden rule. I did not hear one member of the committee ask more questions. And here virtually every member of the minority is asking to ask more questions and thats a very substantial difference. We have because youve got a nominee of the Republican Party. Were not going to treat a republican nominee differently than we treat a democratic nominee. Weve had weve had the same well go here next. I do want to put in the record that Michael Levitt had two rounds. He was never education secretary. Rod page under bush had tenminute rounds. There is other precedent. Thats why my members are asking i appreciate that, senator murray, and i appreciate that. Im trying to be fair by treating mrs. Devos in the same way we treated both president obamas education nominees. Well go next to senator cassidy. Mrs. Devos pap thanks. Good to see you again. Im really struck. The kind of reaction your nomination has elicited. So let me just ask some questions. Do you support Public Education . Absolutely, senator. Man, thats amazing. You would think some would have us think that you do not. Do you believe that all children, all children deserve to have the opportunity to receive quality education . Absolutely i do. Do you support the rights of all chirp regardless of income or race . By the way, this means a lot to me, this next one to have the option to choose the school that meets their childs needs . Absolutely i do, and i commend you and your wife for the school that you started thats specifically focused on dyslexic students. I will tell you, by the way, my son, whos very bright, graduated from speaking of dyslexia graduated from an inner city school, Public School, then graduated with honors from some fancy school in the northeast. And my daughter, who has dyslexia, were able to pay the tuition so she can have her needs addressed. Not all parents can pay that tuition, so it matters very much to me a parent, regardless of our income, can get her childs needs addressed, so thank you for doing that. Just a few more. Do you support the belief the decisions affecting our childrens education are best left to the states and locals to decide to allow them to tailor the education policies and programs that best need that best meet the needs of their students . I do, indeed. Oh my gosh. Do you view the role of the u. S. Secretary of education as an opportunity to advance your personal education views and agenda . Not mine personally. Im going to hopefully be able to advance this president elects and also the views of many, many parents nationally. As secretary of education, is it your intention to undermine our nations Public Education system . Not at all. As secretary, will you carry out the implementation of federal education laws in a way that reflects the very letter and intent of the law . Indeed. Do you intend to mandate, direct, coerce, or control any state, local School District or school on any Education Program that is specifically prohibited by the secretary and federal law, one such example being common core . No. Do you intend to mandate, direct, coerce, or control any state, local School District or school to require School Choice policies including private School Vouchers or scholarships . No. Lets clear that for the record. Next, just you mentioned dyslexia. I am passionate about that. 20 of us are dyslexics. 20 . Im told one out of four children at age 4 of color reads substantially below grade level. Thats important because we learn to read then we read to learn. If youve not learned to read, youre behind the 8ball. So that is an issue im passionate about. As secretary of education, will you commit to working with me and others to find common ways to promote better awareness and understanding of dyslexia, land you commit to working with me and this committee to develop better federal education policies to ensure that dyslexic children and all students with differences have the resources they need . I would look forward to that opportunity, senator. Now, you may not agree to this one or not. Will you develop new federal policies that will ensure early screening for dyslexia in school are universal screenings for all children in school, tho ensure any differences are diagnosed early and the appropriate services are provided to students . Snild look forward to exploring that with you to see whether thats a federal role or best left to the states, but i would look forward to that opportunity. That is a fair answer. I have a couple more ive got to ask, but this meeting is going long. I will thank you for your answers and i will yield back. Thank you, senator. Thank you, senator cassidy. Senator bennett. Thank you, mr. Chairman. In view of how fair youve been to me and other members of the committee, it pains me to say this, i really wish we had a second round of questions too. I really wish we had the tax returns from this nominee. I dont believe you are a precedent for this. When you were the nominee youd been a governor, youd been the president of a university. John king had been a school principal, had been the commissioner of education in the state of new york. Arne duncan had been the superintendent of the chicago Public Schools. Those were the experiences they brought to their committee hearing, and their records were wellknown and well established. There is no way in the period of time we have here that were going to be able to elicit that level of background. So i would ask that some consideration be given to our having additional questions and that the tax returns be made available to the committee. I want to thank mrs. Devos for your willingness to serve and for being here, for your passion about education, for your family as well. I agree with you and the Committee Members know this, that our Public School system is not working for many of our kids, particularly those living in poverty. I think its utterly unacceptable and the fact we dont Pay Attention to it, the fact we treat americas children like theyre someone elses children i think is something that this generation is going to have to pay for in the future. Every kid in this country should have had access to a great Public School. I support parents choices among high quality Public Schools and Charter Schools, and i think plays a Critical Role in education. But the goal for me has never been School Choice. For its own end. The goal is high quality Public Schools where every kid and every neighborhood can receive a great education. For a kid from a lowincome fami family, there may be a philosophical, but theres no practical difference between being forced to attend a terrible school and being given a chance to choose among five terrible schools. Thats no choice at all and certainly not a meaningful one. In denver, we made a different deal, a deal that said were going to create a public choice system, authorize charters, create Innovation Schools and strengthen traditional schools. But without exception we demanded quality and implemented strong accountability. And as far as i can tell, detroit and michigan to a degree has followed exactly the opposite path. According to one analysis, the detroit Public Schools by the way, its not easy to figure this out because theres so little accountability in michigan. The detroit Public Schools average 9 , 9 of the kids are proficient. The Charter Schools do a little better at 14 of the kids are proficie proficient. Ill stipulate that the Charter Schools are doing better, but thats a horrible outcome for everybody involved. According to an Education Trust report 2013, the majority of Charter Schools in michigan perform worse than the detroit in michigan perform worse than the detroit Public Schools when it came to africanamerican students in eighth grade math. Nearly half of Charter Schools in michigan ranked in the bottom quarter of all schools statewide. So my question is this not a false choice about whether we should have choice or shouldnt. We should have choice. But what youve learned of the last 20 years of this work in michigan that has changed your mind about what it is that kids need in america in the 21st century . Senator, thank you for that question. First of all, i look forward to correcting some of the record regarding detroit, and i think its important first of all to put detroit in context. In 1950 there were 1. 8 Million People living in the city of detroit. Today theres less than 700,000, 675,000 roughly. Anyone with any means in the city of detroit has with schoolaged students has basically left the city, and the students the students there today im sorry, with respect, im not asking for a history of detroit. What id like to know what i asked about was the last 20 years of School Reform youve been so involved with in michigan. Yes, but you are referring specifically to the detroit schools. Right. And the reality today is that 8 out of 10 students in detroit are living in poverty. Nobody accepts that the results in detroit overall are acceptable. Theres cheerily room for a lot more improvement. But the reality is that more than half of the im sorry. Im not going to get a second round of questions. What have you learned about the failures of the detroit Public Schools and detroit Charter Schools that has informed your decisionmaking as the secretary of education . What went wrong there thats going to go right in cities all across america as a result of your philosophy about how we okay. We actually, i believe theres a lot that has gone right in well continue to monitor this hearing. Right now our special coverage continues with erin burnett out front. Starting right now. Thanks so much to you, wolf. We are going to keep an eye on the devos hearing. Next, we have breaking news. Chelsea manning, the army private sentenced to 35 years in prison for disclosing secret documents to wikileaks going to be freed. Why did president obama do it . The white house responds out front tonight. Plus more democrats boy catting Donald Trumps inauguration. Well talk to one top democrat. Is what theyre doing unamerican . More breaking news. Donald trump arriving in washington. Well see him momentarily as we count down to his inauguration. Lets go out front