{"id":115836,"date":"2017-02-07T14:44:46","date_gmt":"2017-02-07T20:44:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=115836"},"modified":"2017-02-08T17:01:58","modified_gmt":"2017-02-08T23:01:58","slug":"heitkamp-opposes-devos-in-senate-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=115836","title":{"rendered":"Heitkamp opposes DeVos in Senate vote"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sen. Hedi Heitkamp (D) North Dakota<\/p><\/div>\n

Washington\u00a0 DC\u00a0 (CSi)\u00a0 <\/strong>U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp Tuesday stood up for North Dakota\u2019s \u2013 especially those in rural areas \u2013 by voting against Betsy DeVos for secretary of the U.S. Department of Education.<\/p>\n

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Following the U.S. Senate hearing on DeVos\u2019 nomination during which she demonstrated her lack of knowledge of basic education policy and her refusal to commit to supporting public schools under oath, Heitkamp last week announced her opposition to DeVos<\/a>. Heitkamp also spoke on the Senate floor<\/a> on Friday to urge her colleagues to oppose DeVos\u2019 nomination. During Heitkamp\u2019s remarks, she invoked the concerns thousands of North Dakotans have expressed about DeVos and the future of public schools under her leadership.<\/p>\n

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\u201cGrowing up in a rural town in Mantador, I know how precious public school education is, especially for students in rural America,\u201d said Heitkamp. \u201cToday I voted against confirming Betsy DeVos to lead public schools across rural communities like mine for one very simple reason: Our kids deserve better. During her Senate hearing, Ms. DeVos could not deliver responses to basic education policy questions, or commit to supporting the future of public education. Her refusal and lack of awareness of laws on the books protecting every students\u2019 access to a quality education \u2013 including for students with disabilities \u2013 signaled a level of disregard for the sacred opportunity of public education. Our kids are counting on us to confirm an education secretary who will strengthen public school system that tells them, \u2018no matter where you come from, if you work hard \u2013 you can achieve\u2019 \u2013 not one who will privatize, defund, and crush that chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Heitkamp\u2019s office has received more than 3,300 emails, letters, and phone calls from North Dakotans about DeVos\u2019 nomination, including through a new online portal<\/a> she launched in early January on her website where North Dakotans can offer their questions and comments on President Trump\u2019s Cabinet-level nominees.<\/p>\n

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Based on those comments, about 90 percent of the North Dakotans who reached out to Heitkamp\u2019s office opposed DeVos\u2019 nomination.<\/p>\n

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Heitkamp\u2019s office has received more than 5,800 phone calls, emails, and letters from North Dakotans about all of Trump\u2019s Cabinet-level nominees, and the comments from North Dakotans on DeVos\u2019 nomination account for more than half of all the comments Heitkamp\u2019s office has received on nominees.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Washington\u00a0 DC\u00a0 (CSi)\u00a0 U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp Tuesday stood up for North Dakota\u2019s \u2013 especially those in rural areas \u2013 by voting against Betsy DeVos for secretary of the U.S. Department of Education.   Following the U.S. Senate hearing on DeVos\u2019 nomination during which she demonstrated her lack of knowledge […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":31894,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-115836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=115836"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115836\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":115913,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115836\/revisions\/115913"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=115836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=115836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=115836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}