Education secretary nominee, betsy devos. The session is underway right now. You can watch it on cspan2. Getting yourng by reaction in hearing what you think about the senate fight over the nomination. Give us a call. A special line for teachers. You can catch up with us on social media. A very good Tuesday Morning to you. It is not a filibustering since theres nothing the democrats can do from keeping the nomination vote from happening, but democrats have been trying to make the most of their time, the 30 hours they have been given to speak against the nomination. The Senate Session began yesterday just after noon with Senate Health education labor Ranking Member patty murray starting off the speaking. Madam president , this nomination is that even right now. Senators, democrats and republicans will vote to reject betsy devos. We need just one more republican to join us, to stand on the side of students and parents and Public Education in america and say no to betsy devos. Madam president , i come to the floor to kick off the final day of debates on this nomination. I spoke on friday making my case for why the senate should oppose betsy devos. Democrats will hold the floor for the next 24 hours until a final vote to do everything we can to persuade just one more republican to join us. I strongly encourage people across the country to join us, double down on your advocacy. Keep making your voice is heard for these last 24 hours. Murray, twoator republicans have said they will not vote for it betsy devos. That is Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins of maine. If that total holds, if another republican does not join the democrats, it will be a 5050 tie and then the Vice President will be called in to break that tie vote. He would probably vote for the residents nominee for the secretary of education. Nominee the president s for the secretary of education for the president s nominee for the secretary of education. Vice president has passed one per year according to data from the secretary of senate. The last tybalt was on march 8 the last tie vote on march 8, 2008. President is in washington expected to be on capitol hill today to break that tie vote, if and when it does happen. We are talking about it this morning. We want to get your thoughts. Talkathon against betsy devos. Stewart is up first. An independent. Caller i think it is great that the democrats are doing what they are doing. That is a representation of free speech. I would like to direct attention to concerns about title ix. Hat is a big part of concern it mainly those are getting accused of harassment unjustly. If anybody who has a son who is in college, i strongly suggest to do a Google Search for title ix due process. Youll find that due process does not exist on campuses when individuals, male or female, are accused of accusations and this is a really important issue that gets lost in the battle. I suggest the journal bring on the authors of the new book, rape frenzy, regarding that issue which i think people should understand. There are problems with harassment, Sexual Harassment on campuses, but the due process issue for those that are affected will understand the world is very complicated and things are not going very well on campuses right now. Host riley is in germantown, maryland. On that lined for on that line for teachers. Your thoughts. Caller i am really proud of the democratic representatives because they are trying to keep this woman who is incompetent out of our education system. She is so obviously not a good fit and doesnt know anything and it is coming at things from this perspective of someone who doesnt believe in Public Education. I think the democrats are fighting against too much at this time, but absolutely, they have to fight tooth and nail. Host why specifically dont you think she would be a good fit . Caller she believes in charter schools, which again and again have been shown not to be that great. They dont serve these small oh, Rural Communities these smaller, Rural Communities. She doesnt know anything about special education. She didnt go to Public Schools and she did not send her children to Public Schools. She is some rich person who doesnt know anything about the Public School system. I dont understand why we never pull from people who actually know something about Public School. Host a little bit of betsy devos bio. She is married to an entrepreneur, the heir to the amway fortune. She was chair of the American Federation for children which advocates for educational choice and chair of the private michigan investment and management firm. We will be talking about her throughout our program. Talkathonupon continues. We want to hear from you and teachers. Good morning. Caller good morning. I am calling to support my fellow teachers. I am a retired teacher but only retired seven years ago. They have no idea how difficult it is to teach in chicago Public Schools. I thought for over 40 years. Ery demanding job sometimes i would start at 5 00 in the morning and would still be working at 7 00 at night. I dont complain about that. That is what i wanted to do. I wanted to give children in the chicago area. I love the children, i love my job, but it is very difficult. The way they can change things, the requirements such as no child left behind, the core curriculum, it is very difficult for the teachers to keep up with all of the demands, especially with the demands to improve the test scores. I know they work very hard. I finished up my career in special education. Me, except foror the end when they expected the special education children to do as well as the children in the regular curriculum. That is impossible. If they were able to do that, they would not be in special education to begin with. Require special education because they were lagging behind. They needed action help. In some cases it wasnt available. Host what have you heard when it comes to betsy devos . Supports she doesnt she doesnt supports Public Education. She doesnt believe in it. I want tot understand give an example. This classroom teacher had trouble in the classroom justifiably. He was a difficult child. I took them out of the classroom and scheduled him with other students so i could give him my attention. He had a tendency to get up. Grandparent took him in transfer them to a private school. Do you know how long he lasted . One week. They dont have to take them. This was a catholic, private school. We have to deal with every single child, no matter what their problem. Host thanks for sharing your story. Betsy devos was asked about this debate between private schools and Public Schools during her confirmation hearing. Here is what she had to say. I share trumps view that it is time to shift the debate from what the system thinks is best for kids to what moms and dads want, expect and deserve. Parents no longer believe that a onesizefitsall model of learning meets the needs of every child. They know other options exist, whether magnet, virtual, charter, home, faithbased or any other combination. Yet too many parents are denied access to the full range of options. Choices that many of us here have exercised for our own children. Why in 2017 are we still questioning parents ability to exercise educational choices for the children . I am a Firm Believer that parents should be empowered to choose the learning environment that is best for each of their individual children. The vast majority of children in this country will continue to attend other schools. If confirmed, i will be a strong advocate for great Public Schools. If the school is troubled, or unsafe, or not a good fit for a child, perhaps they have an special need that is going i met, we should support a Parents Choice to enroll a child in an alternative. Host if you want to watch that hearing, you can do so on our website at cspan. Org. We want to hear from you as this talkathon continues. Using up the 30 hours of time they have been given to voice their opposition. The vote expected to happen in just a few hours. Even as in las vegas. Guess steve is in las vegas. Caller i tired from hearing from these people who say betsy devos doesnt know anything about Public Schools. That is just a fact. If we are going to put a fact out there, she is all for choice for parents. I dont know what everyone is afraid of. Parents should have choice. There is nothing wrong with that. If the Public Schools in this country are doing so well, why are we continuing to drop academically worldwide in the standings . We are not doing too well, especially with people who know everything about education. I dont think betsy devos is going to create any problems. She is going to put light on where we have really bad issues, because she is involved and she really does care. She is not doing this for the money. She is not doing it for any other reason. That is basically what ive got. Host lease is up next, democrat. Lisa is up next, democrat. Caller i hope for the sake of our country that ms. Devos is going to be more than an advocate of Public Education and actually help to improve it. I think that this appointment i dont know if it is it feels like it is a secret insult to all of the teachers in Public Education. This is who she is really supposed to be advocating for is to help the teachers help our students. I think it should be a stronger credential than being a billionaire. This person was born into wealth. It did not on her own develop business accumulating business acumen. You are not just born with that occurs you are born a billionaire. It is not about that she would bring her business acumen into a public arena. After listening only long to these amazing senators who have given all this information, shocking that someone with so little experience in the Public School environment and doesnt know how the difference between in termsd proficiency of identifying students skills is just amazing to me that this would be the person that is put up it is almost like throwing en under the bus by making third of fourth woman in the whole administration is somebody who can barely defend themselves because they dont know how to the experience they dont have the experience host . Just experience. Experience. Host you dont sound positive that there will be another republican that will vote no. Gettingevery senator is tens of thousands of contracts to please consider i myself have called my senator and got my point across and try to let him know that we need to get a different you have to vote no on this. It is not the right fit. Shaheen in her floor speech yesterday talked about the volume of calls and letters that she has received. Here is what she had to say. In my state of New Hampshire, support for Public Schools is bipartisan and passionate. Rural communities and small towns and our cities across the state, our Public Schools and institutions that have support from communities. They are a big part of our. Dentity and shared experiences across centuries and generations in the granite state, Public Schools have been at the heart of our common civic life. I think it is not surprising that my office has been inundated with letters, emails and phone calls strongly opposing the divorce nomination. The devos nomination we have received more than 4000 latest 4000 letters. That may not seem like a lot for someone from the state of california. For the state of New Hampshire to have 4000 letters and emails on a nomination is unheard of. Almost all of them oppose this nomination. Receivedon, we have 1405 telephone calls in opposition and only three in support. Three. 1, 2, 3. At 1004 to five opposed and opposed and three. That was Jeanne Shaheen yesterday. Right now on the senate floor, the senator from illinois is speaking. If you want to watch in its entirety what is happening, you can go to cspan2. We will show you. If you have missed any of the speeches overnight, you can go online to cspan. Org or stay with us as we talk about it and get your reaction. One. Y busy a busy week starting here on capitol hill. A special line for teachers this morning. Memphis, tennessee. Good morning. Caller howre you doing . Host doing well. Caller i am a retired teacher, 82 years old. One of the things i have found in memphis is where you have vouchers, children and parents go to the schools and they are made promises and what happens when they get there and find out it is not what they thought, the children leave. The parents bring them back to the Public Schools. The issues you find their find there is by then the money is gone. What happens when they come back to Public Schools, they come back with no funds. Therefore it you have a burden therefore, you have a burden. Public schools have to teach all children. They cannot choose. Private schools can. Private schools Public Schools must take care of the children. We must be very careful on when you say and shall gets a better education and private school. They might get them at a school they have chosen, but sometimes they really dont. The Public Schools must always teach all children, no matter what their conditions are. I have had to teach all, no matter what the problems are. Host thank you for the call from memphis. Staying in memphis is arthur. Caller good morning. Would i let the center half but five minutes. I think he brought all the republicans out. Host explain what you mean. Thomas and illinois. Republican. Caller hello. I am on the county board and we cant get enough money for a schools. I watched this documentary called waiting for superman. The problem with the schools is administrations taking all the money. It costs over 12,000 year in the state of illinois. [indiscernible] kids in illinois at the eighthgrade level, 20 of them read it in a grade level. Read at an eighth grade level. We started that with jimmy carter. Year. Rown to 70 billion it shows all the bureaucracy that goes on in washington and all the way down to the state. Basically, administration is over half of what the teachers get. The Teachers Union and politicians are all in bed with each other. [indiscernible] kids who went to a catholic school. I was on the board for a wild. For a while. It involves the parents a lot more than the Public Schools. I had my kids in a Public School because there wasnt a Catholic High School here. She is going to [indiscernible] what would happen if a teacher wanted to start up her own trouble school and got 12,000 a year for these students. How many students would you have to have in class to make a good living . It is all about the unions and the teachers. [indiscernible] those Public SectorUnion Contracts are going to break us, system think the this is just ridiculous. Teachers are shooting themselves in the foot. On now it ran is blown up into this huge thing. Host the size of the department of education according to the does website, the president s fiscal 17 budget, 69. 4 billion in discretionary funding. Helen is up next in fullerton, california. Every plugin. A republican. Caller im a teacher and republican so i am conservative which people find confusing. Their prior caller was talking about the department of education, the federal government getting too much control over the last decade. The department of education has been around for a while, not until Lyndon Johnson dated expanded to so much power and influence johnson did it expand into so much power and influence. Boss , just the devos has no idea. She is not been at my shoes. Before. One through this it seems with republican administrations. It seems as though they have this panacea, let me privatize education and i will cure the countrys problems by making everybody little geniuses. Othing happens i dont see any progress made by any republican administration. Ishink oftentimes education just a politicians way of saying , i am going to make improvements of education, because they cannot make improvements anywhere else. It is an easy smokescreen. That is my only comment on the topic, except i am appreciating the democrats for opposing the boss host some of those that participated in overnights speaking session. Heres a democrat from new mexico. Devos is not committed to policies making our College Campuses safer in response to sexual assault. We have a moral imperative to make sure students have equal protection while attending school. There is Claire Mccaskill of missouri a few tweets from some viewers. Next in new york. An independent. Aller thank you if these politicians who are democrats inc. They support of the education, why do they often send their kids to private education . At the devos, i am all for her because she wants the money for education to follow the parents and students, not the politicians and the unions. She is not so much opposed to Public Education as she is opposed to the monopolization of education by taxpayerfunded government run schools. Free us up, let us as taxpayers support those who want to have education done by the way in which the parents and the students want it, not the politicians in washington. If we get back to the constitution, we will unlimited the department of education we will eliminate the department of education and bring it back to the state level. Allel like democrats are for choice when it comes to terminating a child but not for choice when it comes to educating a child. Charlotte. Es is in good morning. Isler i dont think anybody happy with the status quo except for the constituency who is worried about their pension and celery and political weight than the kids. Any measure, when you look at the bottom third of kids who go to Public School, we are not getting the job done. All these people say, i am a teacher and betsy devos is not a teacher so she doesnt know. They dont know the real world. In the business world, you dont have to be you dont have to know you dont have to cross every tea in the accounting department, but you have to have a grand vision. Disruptor, the same way that trump is. They are trying to find a way to reach the bottom third, as well as create an environment for other kids to excel. Disruptingn favor of the system, trying to break the Union Control over education and helping all students achieve as much as they can achieve. Host our last caller in this segment. We are going to revisit this topic in our 8 00 our. 8 00 hour. Until then, we are going to be joined by republican congressman, michael burgess, of texas. We are going to be talking about efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care act. As we said, we will be revisiting the betsy devos conversation. We will be joined by brendan boyle, a democrat of pennsylvania, talking about the travel ban of the executive order. The controversy it has caused. We are going to send our viewers back to the senate floor. Still holding the senate floor speaking out against the nomination of betsy devos. I am a pathologist a pathologist writes, as a mother of three children who received therapy, i beg you to vote no on betsy devos. Become ofd what will my children, as well as my students, if there be services are not provided to the Public Education system. Many of our student families cannot afford therapy. They reply they rely on getting therapy through the school they attend. Michelle, she writes, i believe betsy devos is unfit to serve as secretary. Our schools and children need a leader who supports Public Education, is qualified and experienced in does not have complex of interest. A School Counselor from chicago writes, i fear the impact that betsy devos will have on the lives of our students. I concern is a lack of understanding of education in the United States. For myself and colleagues, many questions she was asked during the hearing were topics we share a variety of opinions and could talk about at length. The fact that she answered very few questions and did not know even seem and doesnt to understand the concerns of having guns in schools is not just does not qualify her to be in this position. A middle schooler from illinois writes, i do not believe that mr. Voss is a choice test ms. Devos is a choice mr. Voss is a choice for the secretary of education of the United States because she lacks experience. Another reason is she has no plans. The plants she does have may result in harm to the Public Education system the plans she does have may result in harm to the Public School system. She does not understand the Public Schools have the same impact on students as private schools and should be treated fairly. This affects my community as many cannot afford private schools. If mrs. The malls were to become secretary of education, she would harm the Public School system and make and leave many students without education. The if you want to watch ongoing talkathon, you can head over to cspan2 and we are going to be talking more about the efforts to oppose betsy devoss nomination. Return at our desk to congressman michael burgess. He has served as chairman of a key congressional panel, the energy and commerce subcommittee on health. What role is that panel and you playing in this effort