Todd Spangler

Detroit Free Press

WASHINGTON — A sharply divided U.S. Senate took a step toward final confirmation of Michigan’s Betsy DeVos as Education secretary Friday morning, voting 52-48 to limit debate on her nomination.

A final vote to confirm her is expected to come next week, with the outcome resting on a razor-thin margin. Two Republican senators — Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — have said they will vote against her, meaning the Senate is split 50-50 on her nomination if the rest of those voting do so along party lines as expected.

If that happens, Vice President Pence, who entered office two weeks ago with President Trump, would cast the deciding vote in his role as titular president of the Senate. It would mark the first time in history a vice president has had to break a tie over a presidential nominee’s confirmation.

It also means another incoming member of Trump’s Cabinet — U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., who is set to become U.S. attorney general once the Senate votes to move his confirmation — must remain in the Senate to vote for her before being confirmed himself.

Betsy DeVos nomination at risk with two Republicans against her

“She’ll be an excellent Education secretary in my judgment and an important one,” said U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., a former Education secretary and chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee which narrowly signed off on her nomination earlier this week and forwarded it to the full Senate for a vote. Both he and the White House have predicted she will be confirmed.

Friday’s early morning vote, which was called shortly after 7 a.m. ET, wasn’t as narrowly split as the final vote will probably be, with Collins and Murkowski agreeing with Republican colleagues to limit debate — a procedural matter in the case of most nominations, requiring only a majority vote. It also didn’t indicate the likelihood of any other Republican defections, however.

Presidents typically get great deference in having nominees confirmed: No presidential nominee has actually been turned back by a vote in the Senate since John Tower in 1989 and in that case it was a Senate aligned with the opposite party, not the president’s.

Democrats have lined up to oppose DeVos, a polarizing figure in Michigan and former state party chairman who for decades has advocated and financially backed movements supporting charter schools and voucher programs which critics say rob funding from more traditional public schools.

Betsy DeVos nomination for Education secretary clears Senate committee vote

U.S. Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the ranking Democrat on the HELP Committee, castigated DeVos for what she called a "failed record and lack of experience." Murray said Republicans in the majority moved too quickly on her nomination and acted as if it were their job to "protect" and "shield" her from scrutiny.

She also criticized DeVos and her family's financial entanglements, saying she hasn't been as forthcoming as necessary, even though she has signed an agreement with the Office of Government Ethics to resolve potential conflicts of interests.

Public school teacher unions have rallied Democrats to try to block her nomination, which was once seen as certain. But DeVos fumbled questions in a committee hearing and was harshly criticized when it initially seemed she did not know key facts about the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, a landmark 1975 law that requires schools to provide equal education to students with disabilities and which as head of the U.S. Department of Education, DeVos would be called on to help enforce.

DeVos later said that she had misunderstood the question and vowed to committee members that she would support any federal laws in place and not attempt to push states to accept vouchers or school choice at the expense of public schools. But she also signaled that she believed in giving wide deference to states in setting school policy and would not commit to what some Democrats see as unquestionable policies as banning all guns from schools, making a joke about them possibly being needed to defend against Grizzly bears in wilderness schools.

Most Republicans on the other hand have staunchly defended DeVos, who with her husband, Amway heir and former head Dick DeVos and the rest of their family, have spent millions funding conservative candidates and causes. But Collins and Murkowski said that while they believed DeVos has children’s best interest at heart, they were unsure of her commitment to traditional public schools — vitally important in their states, where alternative schools are often not options.

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"Mrs. DeVos is the product of her experience," Collins said Wednesday, announcing her opposition. “She appears to view education through the lens of her experience of promoting alternatives to public education in Detroit and other cities." Collins added that the believed DeVos' "concentration on charter schools and vouchers raises the question about whether or not she fully appreciates that the secretary of education's primary focus must be on helping states and communities … strengthen our public schools."

"She has been so involved in one side (of school vouchers and school choice), she may be unaware of what actually is successful within public schools and what is broke and how to fix them," Murkowski added.

So far, no other Republicans have publicly said they would vote against her and several of those who might have been targets for Democrats to turn — U.S. Sens. Jeff Flake of Arizona and Dean Heller of Nevada among them — have voiced their support for her.

DeVos has said that while she will support traditional public schools, she also believes that parents and students should have the choice to pick the schools they see as best for them.

Alexander said he was "puzzled" why Democrats would question DeVos' support for charter schools, noting they have been widely embraced, including by some Democratic politicians. He also noted he had letters of support for DeVos from nearly two dozen governors.

"They see her as someone outside the system ... who can help change and improve it," Alexander said.

He also said that there are multiple studies indicating that Detroit charter schools have improved education over traditional schools. Other reports have questioned just how great that difference has been, however.

Follow Todd Spangler on Twitter: @tsspangler