Controversy over newly confirmed Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos ran rampant throughout the confirmation process. The confirmation of DeVos looked to be a bipartisan issue after her Senate hearing brought up many holes in whether or not DeVos was qualified for the job.

Concerns regarding DeVos included lack of experience in the public sector, equal opportunity over equal outcome, guns in schools and plan to implement the “school choice” program. This program states that parents of students can decide where their children attend school, public or private, while being federally compensated to do so. Public opinion of DeVos has not been high, mostly due to controversy over her support of using private schools.

“This will definitely send the public school system into an even worse state that it’s already in,” junior Zack Tokarczyk said. “With Trump saying that he will eliminate Common Core, I really hope that [he and DeVos] have a solid plan to actively help the school system.”

On the night of Monday, Feb. 6, Democrats held an all-night protest against DeVos, trying to sway others voting to stray from the party lines. This was a last ditch effort after the elimination of the Senate to be able to filibuster any presidential administration appointees, except for Supreme Court Justices. This effort follows over 1.5 million phone calls from the public to senators undecided on DeVos in an attempt to stop her confirmation.

Democrats unanimously voted against DeVos alongside two Republican senators, which brought the vote tally to a 50-50 split. This forced Vice President Mike Pence to cast the tie-breaking vote. With this vote comes the first time in history the Vice President has cast a tie breaking vote in a cabinet appointee confirmation. 

“The fact that a confirmation vote went to the Vice President really shows how divided our country is,” senior Evan Goodwin said. “Also, with the senate divided by two votes, I can definitely see more controversy like this over the next 4 years.”