Betsy DeVos, President Trump’s pick to be education secretary, was approved on a 12-11 party-line vote by a Senate committee Tuesday after a contentious hearing in which her qualifications were sharply questioned.
Senate Democrats argued that DeVos — a billionaire from Michigan and a staunch supporter of school choice — knew little about education policy and would be harmful to public schools.
The Washington Post also reported that one of her written answers to questions posed by senators appeared to be plagiarized from a statement made by a member of the Obama administration.
Another appeared to have been lifted from the Department of Education’s website, the paper said.
In an answer to a question from Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) about bullying of LGBT students, DeVos quoted Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta, head of the Civil Rights Division at President Obama’s Justice Department, almost word for word, the paper said.
“Every child deserves to attend school in a safe, supportive environment where they can learn, thrive, and grow,” DeVos wrote.
“Every child deserves to attend school in a safe, supportive environment that allows them to thrive and grow,” Gupta wrote in a May 2016 press release.
DeVos also apparently took language from the Department of Education website in another example cited by the paper.
“Opening a complaint for investigation in no way implies that the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has made a determination about the merits of the complaint,” DeVos wrote in response to a question about publishing a list of schools under investigation for Title IX complaints.
The Department of Education’s website read: “Opening a complaint for investigation in no way implies that OCR has made a determination with regard to the merits of the complaint.”
DeVos’ candidacy will now go to the GOP-controlled full Senate.