Hickory Public Schools weighs in on DeVos moving a step closer to confirmation as education secretary

By John Bailey, Hickory Daily Record

School Bus Image | Robert Reed Photo

On Tuesday, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions voted along party lines, 12-11, in favor of President Donald Trump’s nomination of Betsy DeVos for Secretary of Education, bringing her one step closer to final approval by the full senate.

DeVos’s nomination has been a contentious one for Trump, centering on her support of private and charter schools while pushing for reform of what she calls, “America’s broken education system,” on her website, betsydevos.com.

She supports public funding of vouchers to subsidize the cost of a private school education and helped fund the West Michigan Aviation Academy charter school in her home state. Charter schools are public schools of choice that are authorized by a State Board of Education and operated by independent nonprofit boards.

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