[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 19 (Friday, February 3, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S670-S675]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Nominations of Jeff Sessions and Scott Pruitt
Madam President, we have a couple of others I want to mention, as
well. Jeff Sessions, who is coming out of this body, will be the next
Attorney General. He will be a great Attorney General because Jeff
Sessions has proved over the years that he is passionate about the law.
He did it when he was in Alabama. He has done it here in the Senate. He
has been an individual who is very focused: What does the law say?
Let's do that.
He has been a person who is a lover of all people but also a person
who is not opposed to confronting people when they need to be
confronted. It is a good role for an Attorney General. I look forward
to seeing him in that spot.
We have a favorite son in this fight as well. His name is Scott
Pruitt. Scott Pruitt has been beat up a lot by the special interest
lobbyists and environmental lobby. They put out all kinds of stuff
about him. I encourage them to actually meet Scott Pruitt and to hear
from him. Scott Pruitt has been passionate about the environment. Scott
Pruitt actually likes breathing clean air. I know that may be shocking
to people, but he actually likes clean air. In fact, he likes clean
water as well. I don't know if you knew that or not.
Scott Pruitt has been a very good attorney general for us and has
also been very focused on doing this one thing: What does the law say?
Let's do that.
Some of the pushback that Scott Pruitt has had is not that he is
opposed to the law; it is that he is not willing to push beyond the
law, to be more creative with the Clean Water Act, and to be more
creative with the Clean Air Act. It is not the job of the executive
branch to be creative with an old law; it is to implement the law and
to do it well.
I fully expect Scott Pruitt to hold every person and every company
that are polluters to account because we as a nation all want clean air
and clean water. But I also fully expect him to push back when someone
says to him ``You ought to do this,'' and for him to respond ``That may
be nice, but that has to pass Congress because the Environmental
Protection Agency can't make up the rules; they can only implement the
rules that have been given to them by Congress.'' I am looking forward
to Scott Pruitt serving in that role.
In the weeks ahead, as he has advanced out of committee, he will come
to the floor, and we will have a full vote here. I am willing to tell
all of my colleagues that when Scott Pruitt is at the Environmental
Protection Agency, you will be pleasantly surprised with how fair he
is, how responsive he is, and how passionate he is about actually
implementing the law.
These are long days for us because there are an awful lot of stall
tactics going on. President Trump is trying to put his Cabinet
together. By this point, 2 weeks in, President Obama had almost all of
his Cabinet done already. Over 20 individuals were already in place in
President Obama's first term. The other party has blocked as many as
they possibly can so that President Trump can't get to work. You may
think that is a nice political thing to do, but the Nation had an
election. And as President Obama said, elections do have consequences.
President Trump should be allowed to put together his Cabinet just as
Republicans allowed President Obama to put together his Cabinet before.
It is a fair thing, and it is the right thing to be able to do. We all
need to be able to get our work done, President Trump included. Let's
let him put his team together and get to work as the American people
have asked him to do.
Madam President, with that, I yield back.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Ms. HEITKAMP. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Capito). Without objection, it is so
ordered.
Ms. HEITKAMP. Madam President, I come to talk about a topic that is
near and dear to my heart. Although I don't serve on the committee of
jurisdiction, I will tell some stories today that will demonstrate to
you about why I feel so strongly about this nominee and so strongly
about this position.
I want to start with my dad's story. My dad grew up on a small family
farm outside the town of Barney, ND, not that you would know where that
is. When he became an eighth grader--when he graduated with an eighth-
grade education, he wanted to go to high school in Wyndmere, but as was
the custom at the time, the oldest son was expected to stay on the farm
and not get an education beyond the eighth grade and help support the
family. That is not unusual. There is probably a number of people in
this body whose parents have a similar experience, but this story
really came home to me when my dad was diagnosed with melanoma.
Unfortunately, with part of that disease, the cancer moved to his
brain and something remarkable happened for all of us, and that was
that he would relive parts of his life. He would believe--as the cancer
took over his brain, that part would activate his memory, and he would
be doing things like calling bingo in the middle of the night during
this time when he was in hospice care. It would alarm us, and maybe
sometimes even amuse us, but he would
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truly believe he was calling bingo at the Mandan VFW Hall.
I remember taking care of him one night, when he started reliving the
experience of not going to high school and started really talking about
how that affected his life, begging his father. I would never have
known that without the cancer, but that education experience was so
critical to his future and the future of his children. That experience
that he had taught us and informed us and mandated that we appreciate
public school education and the opportunity that came with it.
That leads to our story, the seven children of Ray Heitkamp who had a
great public school education in Mantador, went to high school in
Hankinson. Some of my siblings were fortunate enough to go to parochial
school before St. Francis closed down, but we all graduated from
Hankinson High School. Then something truly remarkable happened in this
country--truly remarkable because we had a chance to go to college.
From the time we were just children, my mother would tell us we were
going to college. We would wonder, back in the sixties, how that was
ever possible.
Then the Federal Government did something truly remarkable. It said
our most important asset and our greatest future lies in the education
of our children, and we want to help our children advance with that
education. We saw what happened with the GI bill when GIs came home
from World War II and went to college and became doctors and lawyers,
became bankers, became businessmen, and worked to build their
communities. We saw that.
We said: Wouldn't it be great if every kid had that opportunity, not
just returning veterans but every kid.
So I remember coming here, my first day that I presided in the U.S.
Senate after I was elected in 2012, and I was so busy getting ready to
serve that I hadn't really gotten to that spot where I realized: Wow. I
am standing in the most deliberative body in the world, and I am a U.S.
Senator. I remember gaveling in, asking Pastor Black to come forward
and give the prayer, and then we turned--as the pages know, we turned
to say the Pledge of Allegiance. It was at that moment when I asked
myself, ``In what country can the daughter of a school cook and a
construction worker serve in the U.S. Senate?''
We are blessed in this country to have opportunity, but that
opportunity is diminished if we don't support public school education.
That opportunity will not be available to future generations. We will
continue to divide this country in ways that will destroy our
democracy.
So where do we go today and how does this have anything to do with
today?
This is our Nation's story. Public school education, which began in
Massachusetts, and every step and every development of public school
education has expanded the opportunity for children with disabilities
to achieve their highest calling through public school education.
Children of a school cook and a construction worker can become a U.S.
Senator. Any achievement we all have is because someone cared about our
education and cared about our opportunities.
I was fortunate, I had parents who believed in education. Way too
many children today are in homes where education isn't a priority.
Maybe that home is racked with poverty, addiction, huge challenges.
Even homeless children deserve a public school education, deserve
access to education.
We are the envy of the world. Children in other countries die for the
opportunity for public school education. This is foundational, not just
to the individual development but to the future of our country.
So where are we today? Sure, we have challenges in education. No one
is denying that. No one is saying our public school education, our
entire education system is perfect. The challenge I have in North
Dakota is achieving quality education in a rural setting. How do we do
that when maybe there are only two high school seniors, and if they are
going to go to the next school, they are going to drive at least an
hour and a half a day. That is not unheard of. I can only imagine what
that looks like in Alaska.
There are parts in our State where we are challenged every day to
deliver high-quality education. We have a technology barrier.
Fortunately, in North Dakota, we have technology and broadband in many
of our schools. That is not true across this country. We need to do
more in broadband, bringing high-quality education tools to schools. We
need to recruit the best teachers for our rural schools, the best
teachers for our urban schools--the best people.
During my time as Attorney General, I did a project involving
juvenile justice. We went around to all of the schools, mainly talking
to junior high kids because we believed that was the point at which
they were making choices that may change the trajectory of their life.
We were going around high schools talking to junior high kids. One of
the things that kids told us over and over again is, they did not want
their teachers to know when they had done something illegal. Why is
that? It is not because they didn't trust their teachers with that
information. The other group they didn't want to know was their parents
because they didn't want to disappoint the heroes in their lives.
Contrary to what people think--because they think children's heroes are
some sports hero or some rapper or some performer, and that is
absolutely not true. Do you know who kids' heroes are? First, they will
say their grandparents or parents or a sister or a brother, one of
their family members. Next what we hear is their third grade teacher,
their seventh grade math teacher, their high school coach who maybe
made their life a little bit easier when they were in school. Those are
their heroes. These are the people who are doing the critical work all
too often of helping to raise our kids in very challenging
circumstances.
So when we do not support public school education with highly
qualified nominees for the highest education job in the country, what
does that say to people who may choose an opportunity in education? It
says we don't think very much of them because we are just willing to go
ahead with a D-minus applicant because maybe that applicant had a big
checkbook.
I want to talk a little bit about my colleague who is on the floor
today, Patty Murray, and a colleague who is not, and that is Senator
Alexander. I can state that I was in State office when No Child Left
Behind was passed. It was so apparent to me and everyone at that level
that this was not a public policy that was going to achieve the
intended results, but yet we maintained that public policy for
decades--through gridlock, through the inability to sit down and
compromise, through the inability to put politics aside and put
children first.
Then something remarkable happened in the last Congress. In a highly
contentious partisan environment, two great leaders, Senator Murray and
Senator Alexander, sat down, and they knew the time had come to reverse
the No Child Left Behind Act and replace it with something that was
going to be much more successful so the Every Student Succeeds Act was
passed, and we are now on the path of implementation. We set a new
policy for public school education.
We need a leader in the Department of Education who believes in
public school education and who can administer that policy, who can
leave policy to the local and State school boards, to parents, to PTAs,
and to local folks. We want policy. We need someone who can collaborate
and implement and work with schools across our country to make this
policy work and then report fairly back to us when something is not
working to tell us that wasn't a good idea. We need more afterschool
programs. We need a hot lunch program that actually serves more kids in
the morning so kids are ready to learn. That is what we need.
So what did we get with this nominee? In my opinion, we got a highly
unqualified nominee for one of the most significant positions in
government for our most precious resource, our children. That is what
we got.
So I am standing today, explaining my belief that we need to do
something different than approve this nominee. We need to send the
right message to all of those educators, all of those State officials,
and all of those parents who came together and worked with Senator
Murray and Senator Alexander to form a policy. Dissent was hardly
anywhere. If it was, it was whispered on the edges. We need somebody
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who appreciates that work, who understands that work, and who would
never say public schools are a dead end.
Public schools are not a dead end. They are the beginning of
opportunity. We have to work hard to make sure that happens, but we
have to start from a foundational belief that public school education
is critically important and needs to be protected, supported, and
advocated for. We have to start there, and I think we are not there
with this nominee.
I wish to say it is not just my judgment that I bring to the floor of
the Senate today. I bring to the floor the judgment of thousands of
North Dakotans who have called me.
Hopefully, I did something to give people greater access to my
advocacy in the Senate for them. I opened a portal on my Web page and
asked people to tell us what they wanted to have done with these
nominees. I have received thousands--in fact, 4,600. It may not sound
like a lot to other offices, but that is a lot from a State of only
730,000 or 740,000 people. Of those 4,600, over half were on this
nomination. Of those who called this office or sent a message to the
portal, 92 percent of them said: Please, do not vote to approve Betsy
DeVos. These are incredible statistics, very telling statistics.
I wish to read some of the comments I received from North Dakotans. I
received a comment from Amber of Burleigh County, who said:
My husband and I are both public educators and we know how
critical a good public school education is for students all
across North Dakota, including our two daughters. We need a
leader at the U.S. Department of Education who supports
students, teachers, and public schools. Unfortunately, Betsy
DeVos wants to dismantle public schools.
Judith from Cass County said:
DeVos has no public education experience or training of any
kind; she has never been a teacher or school administrator,
served on any public board of education, or even attended a
public school. It is clear DeVos is not qualified to be the
head of the U.S. Department of Education.
Patricia from Bottineau County told me:
As a former public school teacher and grandmother of 6, I
do not support Betsy DeVos for Secretary of Education. She
should not get this job with no experience in education other
than trying to get rid of public schools.
An editorial today in the Fargo Forum, a very conservative newspaper
in my State--I might say, it is not known for its liberal bias--said:
Of Trump's Cabinet nominees, DeVos is among the least
qualified for the intended job because of her uninformed and
ideologically skewed views of public education. Her ignorance
was on display during her Senate committee hearing during
which she was unable to answer even softball questions about
long-standing education policies.
If we were inclined to support Ms. DeVos, I felt it was my job to
watch the hearings. By anyone's measure, I think the hearings were
clearly a disaster for this nominee. But I think it also represented--
more than the lack of knowledge and qualifications--an attitude. That
attitude is that it is clear she doesn't understand the importance of
public schools and refused to rule out taking Federal investments away
from public schools. In fact, I think it was very clever in not
revealing the true agenda, which is to privatize--not just charter
schools. In fact, some of the greatest charter school advocates in this
country do not support her nomination.
She doesn't understand basic education policy, yet she wants to lead
the Federal agency overseeing education in our country. She doesn't
understand or know of current Federal laws that support and protect
students with disabilities. She has shown her severe lack of knowledge
about rural schools, which represent about one-third of the public
schools nationwide. She never attended or taught in a public school or
had any of her children in a public school.
Students, parents, and teachers across North Dakota have stood up to
say no to Betsy DeVos. In the Senate, only one more vote is needed to
stop this nomination from proceeding.
I ask my colleagues who have not made up their mind, my colleagues
whom I know care deeply about children to think about the great history
of our country and think about the enormous privilege we had as
children and as young adults to access that public school education. I
ask them to think about how else someone who is the daughter of a
school cook and a janitor and a seasonal construction worker could be
in the Senate if it weren't for public school education.
Please, we can find someone so much better--someone who understands
the new Federal policy, who has the ability to collaborate with public
officials and not criticize, someone who hasn't said the work of these
people who have dedicated their lives is a dead end, and someone who
has respect for public school education.
We can do so much better. Our kids need it and deserve it. Children
in the most precarious and difficult situations need a champion,
whether it is because they have disabilities or whether they come from
poverty and don't have a parent who really cares about their education
or is too busy trying to put food on the table to worry about whether
the homework gets done. We can make a difference here. We can send a
message out to all of those school teachers who have dedicated their
lives, who are our kids' heroes, that their life work matters. We are
going to send them the best this country has to offer to be their
leader.
Madam President, with that, I yield the floor, and I yield my time to
Senator Murray.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Ms. HEITKAMP. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Ms. HEITKAMP. Madam President, I yield the remainder of my
postcloture debate time to Senator Murray.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator has that right.
Ms. HEITKAMP. Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. TESTER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. TESTER. Madam President, I rise today to address the potential
confirmation of Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education. I rise today not
just as a Senator from Montana; I am a former public school teacher, a
former public school board member. I have a mother who was a teacher
and an aunt who was a teacher. I have a daughter who is a teacher. I
have a sister-in-law who is a teacher. I have a number of teachers in
my family. They all have either taught at or currently teach at public
schools. When I was growing up, education was a critical part of what
we developed into. Public education was something that my parents
thought was very important. That was instilled in them by my
grandmother, who over 100 years ago immigrated to this country from
Sweden, due in part to the public education system we have in this
country today.
When I came home from school every day, my mother would quiz me on
what went on in public education. By the way, I went to the same school
she did. She would find out what had transpired, both the interactions
with the kids and what went on academically in the school, and also
offer me a hand if I needed help with the academic portion. We would
talk about my experiences in the public school because it was
important. She knew it was important.
She was the daughter of a homesteader. When she was a child,
homesteading wasn't exactly looked upon kindly by the ranchers of the
community. They thought homesteaders were taking away their right to
make a living--breaking up that good grass and putting wheat on it,
making it so cattle couldn't continue to graze there. There was a lot
of friction between ranchers' and farmers' kids. They all went to the
same public school. In my particular case, it was Big Sandy Public
Schools. In the environment of that public school, those kids learned
to get along. What resulted from that was the ``greatest generation.''
We live in a world today due in much part to their figuring out a way
to get along, figuring out a way to communicate, figuring out a way to
make the world a
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better place. That was due I think entirely because of the public
education system we have in this country today.
Our public education system is--and this cannot be argued--the
foundation of our democracy. When I was growing up and the Vietnam
conflict was going on and there were conflicts around the world,
everybody said: You know, these countries need to have a democracy. And
then there was a realization that without an educated population,
democracies really don't work.
We have had a democracy in this country for nearly 250 years because
of the success of our public education system. We have had a middle
class in this country that has been the envy of the world because of
our--listen to me--public education system. It is the foundation of our
democracy, it is the foundation of our economy, and it is a place where
we learn to live together peacefully.
What is troubling about the nomination of Betsy DeVos as Education
Secretary is that she wants to privatize this public education system
we have. I had her in my office. We talked about vouchers, and we
talked about privatizing education. We talked about accountability. Her
response to the public education system was that it was failing. Her
response to that was, pull a few kids out. Pull the kids out who don't
have any disabilities, pull the kids out who are a little smarter, and
put them into a classroom, and that will be what makes this country
great again. This country is already great, and if we do that, I am
here to tell the people of the Senate today that we will destroy the
foundation of this country and we will destroy--it may take a few
years--we will destroy our democracy.
It would be different if Betsy DeVos had spent 1 hour, 1 minute, 1
second in a public education classroom. She was not educated in public
schools. She has not dealt with public schools. I dealt with it as a
teacher. I dealt with it as a school board member for 9 years. In fact,
my second public service job was on the Big Sandy School Board. It is
important because my first one dealt with soil and soil conservation,
and my second one dealt with education. She has been in neither of
those positions. Quite frankly, it doesn't matter that she wasn't in
those--except it does because if you don't touch base with what is
going on and see the successes that are happening in public education,
you can have a warped view of what is going on in this country right
now, and that warped view will cause you to do things like say ``You
know what, we are going to put up charter schools, we are going to have
vouchers, and ultimately we are going to take away public education as
we know it today.'' Instead of saying ``You know what, we are going to
invest in accountability, we are going to invest in teachers' salaries,
and we are going to invest in a 21st-century education system so our
kids can compete,'' the answer is ``No, we are going to pull kids out
of the school.''
I am going to tell you a secret. I taught in the late seventies. I am
far from a master teacher; I taught for a couple of years. I quit
teaching because I could do anything else in society and make more
money. I could cut meat for a day and make as much money as I made
teaching school for a week.
Wouldn't it be a little bit smarter, instead of privatizing the
schools, as Betsy DeVos wants to do, to invest in those schools? Let's
give the kids the maximum opportunity we can give them. Let's value
public education, and let's value education.
I am going to tell you what happens in a rural State like mine with
privatization. My school system in my hometown of Big Sandy has about
175 kids. That is not an exception for Montana; there are a lot of
schools that have 175 kids or fewer. By the way, that is not high
school; that is K-12. Let's say that for whatever reason, somebody
wants to set up a charter school a few miles down the road and suck a
few kids out of Big Sandy and maybe suck a few kids out of the Fort
Benton school system and a few more out of the Chester system. Pretty
soon, they have their little charter school, and there is less money to
teach the kids who are left in those public schools. What do you think
is going to happen to those kids who are left there? That is going to
take away from our public education system. Ultimately, it will cause
those schools to close because the money that funds our education is at
a bare minimum right now.
The other thing that has happened in our public education system is
that Congress--people here--has made the promise to local schools to
fund kids with disabilities, the IDEA Program, things we can do to help
fix public education. Let's fund what we promised--40 percent. It is
funded at 16 percent right now. So if we had a person who was going to
go in as Secretary of Education and said: You know what, this is a
problem, and we are going to fight to make sure that folks have the
money from the Federal level to be able to teach the kids; and we are
going to live up to our promise; and, by the way, IDEA is a good
program that needs to be fully funded, and the Federal Government needs
to do their part at 40 percent, I may have a different opinion. But
that is not what she wants to do. She, in fact, wants to do something
far worse than that.
She told me she wanted to block grant the money for IDEA, which would
further put another nail in the coffin of schools around the country,
and then put three or four in the rural schools.
It has been documented here earlier this morning that the phones have
been ringing off the hook. They have been ringing off the hook opposed
to Betsy DeVos. There are 1 million people who live in Montana. Over
3,000 people have contacted me opposing her. I have had 20 contact me
to support her. Phones are ringing off the hook. In fact, the phones
are ringing to the tune of 1,200 to 1,500 calls a day. The phone system
has shut down. There are some Senators who aren't even answering their
phone because they don't want to hear it. But the truth is that public
education is important in this country. People know what is at risk
here. To have somebody who has never spent any time in the classroom of
a public education system is asking for catastrophic results.
I am going to read a few comments from people in my great State who
have sent me emails and letters about Betsy DeVos. Here is one from
Melee in Missoula:
Mrs. DeVos has no place in our national education system.
She is clearly not prepared nor does she even have the most
basic experience to do this job well. Our students, teachers,
and parents, deserve an excellent candidate, and she is not
it.
Kelly from Laurel:
As a mother of an 11-year-old daughter, the thought of this
woman in charge of our Nation's school system scares me.
Sandy from Billings:
It would be nice to have an Educational Secretary who has
actually worked, I say WORKED, in education instead of some
rich woman who has never spent a day in public schools.
Kim in Kalispell:
We need an Education Secretary that knows what the I-D-E-A
Act actually is and the needs of rural school districts. We
can do better and our kids deserve better.
Jenessa from Froid wrote me quite a long letter. I think it is
particularly poignant, so I want to read this to you. It is a little
bit long, but I think it is very clear. I want to back up a little bit
and tell you that Froid is a very small town, not unlike Big Sandy. It
doesn't have a lot of kids, but it has great people. Here is what
Jenessa says:
After marrying my husband, a local farmer, in August 2010,
I put down my roots with plans to spend my entire teaching
career in Froid. With Mrs. DeVos pushing for private school
funding, our small school will be one of the first to suffer.
Having two small boys that will be soon entering into their
school years, they will be the third generation to walk the
halls of Froid Public School. I want them to be able to spend
all 13 of their public school years in the same school.
As an educator, I have seen what a small rural school can
do for a student. While we may not get the same opportunities
as large schools, when the opportunities knock on our door,
we have a large percentage of students take advantage.
They have pride in their school and their community.
Montana is currently suffering from teacher shortage. With a
lack of funding, this shortage will only get worse.
I am currently in the process of earning my Masters degree
in Educational Leadership. With this degree, I have been
given the opportunity to become the principal of our small
school. A school my family attends, my roots are dug, and I
do not want a woman like Betsy DeVos having control over [our
school].
Please vote no. A vote for Betsy is a vote for private
control. A vote for Betsy is against the community of Froid.
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A vote for Betsy is against Froid Public School. A vote for
Betsy is a vote against public school teachers across this
country and against the great State you represent. A vote for
Betsy is a vote against my family. A vote for Betsy is a vote
against me.
Mary from Red Lodge:
As a 32-year veteran educator in a rural public school, I
am deeply concerned about the appointment of Betsy DeVos as
Education Secretary. I'm inclined to say that her loyalty and
financial backing of Mr. Trump were the reasons for the
misguided appointment and not her experience and knowledge in
education issues.
To be in such an esteemed position as Education Secretary,
one would expect years of experience and an advanced degree
to understand the ongoing issues we face in U.S.
education.
Sara from Billings:
As a first grade teacher in a low-income school, I believe
wholeheartedly in Montana's public schools.
Betsy DeVos believes in school privatization and vouchers.
She has worked to undermine efforts to regulate Michigan
charters, even when they clearly fail.
The marketplace solution of DeVos will destroy our
democratically governed community schools. Her hostility
towards public schools disqualifies her.
She will not work to provide a free and fair education to
my students who struggle every day with hunger, with
homelessness, and more. I am asking you to vote against the
confirmation of Betsy DeVos.
But I have heard from far more than that--from parents to
grandparents, to doctors, to average Joes who oppose this nomination.
Education is something that affects everybody's life. In my opening
remarks, I talked about the need for public education for democracy to
work and exist. As a former school teacher and as a former board
member, I can tell you that there are a lot of things we can do to make
public education better, and we ought to do it.
There are hard things to do. It is much easier to say: Let's just
destroy the program and privatize it, and then see what we end up with.
That would be a bad decision, and that is why we should not vote for
Betsy DeVos.
The impacts are huge. They are huge on our economy, they are huge on
our form of government, and they are huge for us being a leader in this
free world we live in.
In closing, I want Montanans to know that we have heard you. You
called, you wrote, and you contacted me on Facebook and Twitter. Your
message has been loud and clear. It is a message that we are hearing
all across this country. It is a message that, quite frankly, if we
confirm this lady, will not make America great again. In fact, it will,
over time, destroy this very country that we love.
As to people who I talk to who say: The Secretary of Education
doesn't matter; it is not going to affect me--I don't know whom you are
kidding. The fact of the matter is, this will affect every school in
every community in this country.
We can say President Trump got elected, and he needs to have the team
that he wants. I am not going to vote for a team that destroys the
public education system in this country. I would not be doing a service
to the people who came before me--the previous generations--and I
certainly would not be doing a service to my kids and my grandkids and
the generations to come after. This is a very important decision. If we
want to do the tough work of debating our public education system and
determining how we can make it better, get the best people in the
classrooms, and get the best academic material in there for them to
work off of, let's do that. But let's not destroy the public education
system that has made this country great for generation after generation
after generation.
I urge my colleagues to stand with the thousands of Montanans and the
millions of Americans who have told us to vote no on Betsy DeVos.
Madam President, I yield my remaining postcloture debate time to the
Senator from Washington, Mrs. Patty Murray.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator has that right.
Mr. TESTER. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Ms. HIRONO. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Ms. HIRONO. Madam President, why are we even debating the nomination
of a person who clearly does not believe in our Nation's public
schools? No matter whether you are a Democrat, Republican, Independent,
no matter what part of the country you live in, whether rural or city,
whether you have children or not, who would say that education is not
important or valuable? Who would say that education is not foundational
to success in life?
Nine of every 10 students in the United States attend a public
school. Who among us would say those students should be led by a person
who does not believe in public schools? Who among us would say that we
should have an Education Secretary who does not commit to making public
schools better for the sake of all of our children?
Then we should ask ourselves: Is Betsy DeVos the best that we can do
for our children and young people? Does Betsy DeVos believe in public
schools? No. Has Betsy DeVos ever been a teacher, a principal, or even
attended public school? No. Does Betsy DeVos believe that we should
hold charter schools--which are public schools, by the way--equally as
accountable as other public schools? No. Does Betsy DeVos understand
educational civil rights laws that provide all children with
disabilities the opportunity to pursue a free and appropriate public
education? No. Did Betsy DeVos commit to holding schools accountable
for campus sexual assault? No. Again, I ask: Is Betsy DeVos the best
that we can do for our children and young people? No.
Again, why are we even here to debate whether such a person should
lead the Department of Education? I feel as though we are going down a
rabbit hole where up is down and down is up. It should not be asking
too much to have an Education Secretary who will stand up for public
schools and the millions of our children and young people who attend
our public schools all across our country.
Education is foundational. I think we all acknowledge that. I speak
from experience. When I came to this country at almost 8 years old, I
did not speak a word of English. I attended public schools where I
learned how to speak English, developed my love of reading, and
ultimately prepared for college. Public schools really helped prepare
me for life.
I had a great sixth grade teacher. His name is Yoshinobu Oshiro.
Before he was a teacher, Mr. Oshiro served in the military intelligence
service during World War II, one of the segregated Japanese-American
units that went on to earn the Congressional Gold Medal. He really
cared about his students, and he encouraged me to study hard.
I have stayed in touch with Mr. Oshiro for decades. When I was last
home in Hawaii about a month ago, I invited him to the historic meeting
of President Obama and Prime Minister Abe of Japan at Pearl Harbor. I
wanted to make sure that Mr. Oshiro met both Prime Minister Abe and
President Obama. This happened. Today, I have a photo of Mr. Oshiro.
There he is, meeting President Obama on that historic day in Hawaii.
Mr. Oshiro was a very important part of my life. In public schools
across the country, there are many more Mr. Oshiros, teachers who go
out of their way to support and encourage their students. They deserve
a leader who will fight for them, who understands the challenges our
public schools face, and who is committed to meeting those challenges.
They deserve a leader who wants all of our children in public schools
to succeed. If you can truly say that Betsy DeVos is that leader, that
she is the best we can do for the millions of children attending public
schools in our country, then vote for her. But I cannot. Thousands of
my constituents agree.
I yield the remainder of my postcloture debate time to Senator
Murray.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator may receive up to 40 minutes.
Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. HATCH. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
[[Page S675]]
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.