devos? mrs. devos: thank you, chairman. chairman alexander, ranking member murray, senators, thank you for the opportunity to be with you. thank you, senator scott and senator lieberman, for those very kind words of introduction. i honor and applaud your lifelong dedication to the success of our nation's students, and your fine public service. i want to begin by thanking my family for their support. many of them seated behind me here, except for my five grandchildren. the oldest is five so it was not advisable they joined us. i'm honored president-elect trump has asked me to join his team and i am grateful for his dedication to education. i look forward to working with him, vice president elect pence, and all of you to bring educational opportunity to every family. while we may have differences, i think we can all agree that learning is a lifelong pursuit and a fundamental american virtue. we are blessed beyond measure with educators for themselves and to students -- that pour themselves into students. the schools in which

devos. children's is on our side. she has devoted her life to helping mainly low income children have better choices of schools. the criticism i have heard amounts to three things -- one, she supports public charter schools. two, she supports giving lower income parents more choices of schools. three, she has user considerable wealth and effectiveness to advance those ideas. i believe she is in the mainstream of public opinion and her critics are not. first, let's take the idea of charter schools. they are public schools with fewer government rules, union rules, so teachers have more freedom to teach and parents have more freedom to pick the school that best suits their child. in 1991 and 1992, president h w bush proposed start from scratch schools. he raised $70 million for new american school development to encourage innovative ideas. as my lastjanuary, act as education secretary, i wrote every single superintendent a country and asked them to try something that was invented in minnesota b

devos. before that, the largest, well, to take the two obama education secretaries, republicans submitted 53 follow-up questions for secretary duncan, and 56 follow-up questions for secretary king. so democrats submitted 255 times more follow-up questions for ms. devos and republicans had done for president obama has nominees. and just to complete the things that have happened, on january 19, ms. devos and office of government ethics reached an agreement. the letter from that office, which i have here and will place in the record says the following following. thank you, richard. we have reviewed the information presented, and they include an agreement between ms. devos and the office of government ethics. and then the language of the director of the office of government of ethics says based thereon we believe that this nominee is in compliance with applicable laws and regulations governing conflicts of interest. there is no committee rule regarding that office of government ethics report. th

the democrats cannot stop betsy devos' confirmation. only betsy devos can stop it. if devos gets into trouble, will lamar alexander step in and shepherd her? it will be key the role he plays the in this to stop the democrats from slamming her. melissa: tony? what do you think? >> i agree. look who is sitting next to her. joe lieberman, there is broad support for betsy devos' nomination. and there is an awareness that the educationalma monopoly held by the unions is at a point. >> as contentious has this political environment has been, there will be fireworks. >> that's how they fundraise. melissa: opening statements about to begin. >> we'll make an opening statement, we'll introduce the nominee. we welcome senator scott, a member of this committee. senator lieberman a distinguished former member of this body who will make introductory remarks, and following the nominee's comments, we'll have five-minute round of questions. we have capitol officers here today who will remove anyone who attempts to disrupt the hearing. this is the first meeting of our committee in the

the the devos lied to senators.t is not the most scandalous thing about that the devos being named as education secretary. it should be an immediate disqualifier. amy: let's turn to senator bernie sanders questiong betsy devos. sanders: my question i and i don't mean to be rude, if you are not a multibillionaire, if your family had not made hundreds of millionsf dollars ofontribions to the republican party, you would be sitting here today? fact,ator, aa matter of i do think there woulde that possibility. i have worked very hard on behalf of parents and children for the last almost 30 years to be a voice for appearance and a voice for students and to empower parents to make decisions on behalf of their children. primarily, l income children. amy: there you have betsy devos responding to bernie sanders. >> betsy devos was also asked in the hearing directly about the whole scam that was trump university. to refused to really commit the idea they shouldn't -- these kinds of private so-called career colleges like the fra

devos. but the devos in my opinion designer children inside. she's devoted her life to helping mainly low-income children have better choices of schools. most of the criticism i've heard of her most depleting spirit one, she supports public charter schools. two, she supports giving lower-income parents more choices of schools for their children. three, she's used her considerable wealth and defect admits to it has those ideas. i believe she's in the mainstream of public opinion and her critics are not. first, let's take the idea of charter schools. they are public schools with fewer government rules, fewer union rules so teachers have more freedom to teach and parents have more freedom to choose the school that suits their child. nothing new about it. in 1991 and 92, president h.w. bush proposed start from scratch schools. he called the new american schools. he raised $70 million for new american schools development corporation to encourage innovative ideas. in 1993 in january, my last type

devos. how much information do you have about the finances of the president-elect, his family or trump-related organizations? >> i don't have any of that information, senator. >> i take it you won't have any way of knowing when asked by the president to take official action as secretary how those actions might affect his personal financial situation. >> i'm not sure i could comment on this. >> i think it many relevant to assessing the wisdom of an education policy proposal to know how that proposal might affect the president's personal finances. do you disagree? >> i think the president-elect. >> do you disagree with me? >> can you state your question again? >> i think it's relevant to assessing the wisdom of an education policy proposal to know how it will effect the president's personal if finances. >> i don't disagree with you. >> i think the nation deserves a secretary who is a champion of public education. in -- in 2015 you said quote government sucks and you called the public education

senate holds a confirmation hearing on betsy devos. she's the controversial pick of the education secretary. she's a billionaire philanthropist and republican donor from michigan. we expect democrats to go after her conservative views on education. betsy devos is a strong supporter of charter schools and vouchers that give families public money to pay for private school tuition. she stepped down as the american federation of children that is dedicated to expanding voucher programs. critics agree that america's education system is failing too many of our children. according to an international moderating group, the united states ranked 19th in science behind norway and 20th in reading. in math, the united states ranked 31st behind israel and slovokia. federal data shows as of 2015, for reading, just about -- i should say a third of eighth grade students are above a proficient level. the senate set to question several other nominees to run for key areas of our government. we're expecting president-elect trump's pick for health secretary,

devos led violated ohio's election laws. betsy devos of michigan was in charge of the political action committee known as all children matter, based in virginia. during her chairwomanship she broke ohio election laws by impose spending donation limits of $10 million per candidate. she in fact violated those limits by funneling national -- over ney, $over $870,000 of it to ohio's state candidates, incidentally all republican candidates. and i ask unanimous consent to place the names and the amounts they received in the record. all these candidates pledged to advocate for privatizing public school education through vouchers once elected into office. the ohio election commission comprised of an equal number of republican and democrats, swiftly and unanimously levied a record fine against her organization in 2008. their decision was subsequently vetted and upheld by a republican judge in a state court. yet, now nearly a decade later, nearly betsy devos nor all children matter has paid their penalty of $5.3 million to the citizen

devos. some have already asked written questions. we will have it two days to think of more and then she will need to answer them. before we vote. as far as tax returns are concerned, if you would like to bring that up we can bring that up at our next executive session which would be the 24th, if her government ethics letter is completed by friday. i would note committee rules don't require tax returns to be reported by presidential nominees. the law does not appear we did not require it of the president obama is too nominees for education secretary. if we want to change the rules we can do that but i'm not in favor of changing the rules in the middle of the process. >> mr. chairman, may i ask a point of order? >> what is your point of order? >> i believe we got a second round with a john king hearings. i asked two rounds of questions in the case. >> you did and i did, and each of the john king, in the last two nominees, mr. duncan and mr. king, we had a five-minute round. and then the chair

devos seemed so unfamiliar with it.oblems with the voucher system she has supported has had in honoring the i.d.e.a. >> what do you say to people that say that senate democrats on that committee are essentially playing gotcha. that you are trying to quiz her and go into obscure areas of policy in order to catch her. >> there is nothing obscure to my family about the i.d.e.a. there is nothing obscure to most educators i know about the importance of educating all our children what i was trying to get at when i talked with ms. devos at the hearing was my concern about the fact that the voucher programs that she had supported made children with disabilities if they were to receive a voucher like kids without disabilities do it made those kids sign away their rights under the i.d.e.a. so i thought it was very important to get her perspective on why she thought that was okay and whether she would, as secretary of education, the country's top education officer charged with making sure that all of our kids have access to free,

it was pretty tough for education nominee betsy devos.et's get the latest from phil mattingly on capitol hill. >> reporter: john and christine, week two has kicked off on tuesday. it was a primary hearing focused on and that is the president-elect's selection to be secretary of education secretary, betsy devos. politically, she comes from a family, she herself, some of the biggest donors in the republican party. as part of that donation, a part of where their money goes, education reform. vouchers, charter schools, big issue information the devos family. and betsy devos in particular have focused on that have made her a prime target for democrats. that's shown in her confirmation hearing. take a look at this exchange between senator elizabeth warren and betsy devos. >> mrs. devos, have you ever taken out a student loan from the federal government to help pay for college. >> i have not. >> have either of your children borrowed money to go to college. >> they've been fortunate to not to. >> uh-huh. have you had any personal experience with

devos. we'll now begin our round of five-minute questions. i'm going to defer my questions until later. we'll begin with senator enzi then to senator murray. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you, mrs. devos. i want to welcome you here and thank you for being willing to take on this kind of a project and to appear before us. i enjoyed our meeting last month and look forward to working with you as we consider your nomination and then after that. you're going to be dealing with a great variety of states from high population to low population. i happen to come from the lowest population state. it has some special challenges in education, call it rural and frontier challenges. we don't allow a child to travel more than an hour by bus to or from school. and as a result, we have some schools that have one or two students. it's a little different situation that was even envisioned with no child left behind so i'm glad we've chased to essa. the federal government -- quality counts 2017 report, i'm p

devos. betsy devos and my opinion is on our children's side. she has devoted her life to helping mainly low-income children have better choices of schools. most of the criticism i have heard of her amounts to three things. one, she supports public charter schools are u2 she supports giving low income parents more choices of schools for their children. she is considered the wealth and effectiveness to advance those ideas but i believe she's in the mainstream of public opinion and her critics are not. first, let's take the idea of charter schools. they are public schools with fewer government rules, fewer union rules so teachers have more freedom to teach and parents have more freedom to choose the school that best suits their child. there's nothing new about it. 1991 and 92 president h.w. bush proposed start from scratch schools he called new american schools and raise $70 million for new american schools development corporation to encourage innovative ideas and then in 1993 and january in my

devos. we're all -- that's all on one side, or her critics. i think betsy devos is in the mainstream. the second reason the democrats on the committee are opposing betsy devos is because she supports charter schools. now, mr. president, i know a little bit about charter schools. my last month as u.s. education secretary in january, 1993, i wrote a letter to every school superintendent in america and said why don't you try this new idea that the minnesota democratic former labor party has invented called charter schools. there were only 12 charter schools then. the first president bush, with my help, had been working for two years to create what we called new american schools, start from the scratch schools. the idea of giving teachers more freedom, parents more choices. that seemed to us like a good idea in a country that values opportunity and competition. well, not only did we think so, over the last 30 years or so, a lot of people have thought so. today there are 6,800 public charter scho

also today, betsy devos, mr.rumps pit for education second, will face questioning, she is a target of the left. with massachusetts senator elizabeth warren writing a 16 page letter critical of her, saying "there is no precedent for an education department secretary nominee with your lack of experience in public education." she will tell senators, "i share president-elect's view that it is time to shift the debate from what the system thinks is back best for kids to what moms and dads want, expect, and deserve. in an education reformer predics if confirmed, devos will make quite an impact. >> day one, when she gets through this hearing today, that opportunity includes trying to put the president's vision of giving every child in america who doesn't have access to a great education that access, not by creating more federal programs come about by devolving the power to the states of local authorities where belongs. >> devos makes teachers unions nervous for her support of school vouchers and school choice, expect he

advocate betsy devos is donald trump's choice for education secretary. virginia senator tim kaine clashed with devos over whether schools must meet federal requirements for helping disabled students. a similar back-and-forth took place over the issue of guns and schools. it's not over yet. senate democrats are demanding a second hearing for devos. fo members have hearings set for today. south carolina governor nikki haley is nominated for u-n ambassador. oklahoma attorney general scott pruitt is nominated to be the head of the epa. businessman wilbur ross is nominated for commerce secretary. and georgia representitive tom price has a courtesy hearing for his nomination as h-h-s secretary. it's a courtesy hearing because a separate panel, the senate finance committee, will actually vote on price's nomination.

devos, welcome to the committee. it's reputed at least that sigmund freud said there are times when a cigar is just a cigar. and there are times when charter schools are just charter schools. and i think when that's the case, everyone in this room supports them. we have a very strong charter school community in rhode island. but there are times when it appears charter schools are used as a evening to attack public education. and the signals of that tend to be that failing charter schools are protected compared to failing public schools. that the standard aren't there. in rhode island we demand a lot of our charter schools. they succeed very well. we are proud of them. but i have read that 80% of charter zmools michigan are run by for-profi- -- charter schooln michigan are run by for-profit entities. we in rhode island wouldn't want that system moved into rhode island or moved to a national level. second signal is when the charter school advocates fail -- you recognized that there are on going costs anresponsibity tha

what betsy devos did in michigan is the opposite of that.t she did, she spent three years defunding public schools, railing against them, fighting against having an investment in them and fighting for having private, for-profit charters. and the record is abysmal. two things. number one, the for-profit charters in michigan, 80% of the charters in michigan are for-profit. they do terribly. 75% of the public schools do better than the for-profit charters. number two, it has hugely lowered michigan's standing education early in the country. so in 2003 before all of this started, michigan was about 21 or 22, 23. now they are 41 and 32 and reading and math. >> jenna: there is a lot to unpack there. let me take some questions for my viewers. >> thank you for letting me. >> jenna: no problem, we are trying to focus before the hearing to understand the questions she might be asked. if the charter schools she is advocating for so bad, why are parents lining up in order to get their kids into those charter schools and not opting for public education?

betsy devos, she says what? >> i would like your views on the relative advantage of measuring-- doing assessments and using them to measure proficiency or to measure growth. >> if i am understanding your question correctly, around proficiency, i would also corelate it to competent tensee and mastery so that you-- each student is measured according to the advancement that they are making in each subject area. >> well, that's growth. that's not proficiency. >> proficiency, is if they have reached a like third grade level for reading, et cetera. >> no, i'm talking about the debate between proficiency and growth. i was kind of surprised, well, i'm not that surprised, that you did not know this issue. (laughter) (applause). >> trevor: dang. i would like to enter that shade into the record. yeah, immediately after he said that, all the other senators were like-- so okay, okay, okay. so betsy did not do well on the verbal part of franken's questioning. how did she do on the math? >> you said that student debt has incre

your assessment of her record there. >> you have to understand betsy devos. the family is worth over $5 billion according to "forbes" so they have a lot of money to spend. she and her family have given a lot of money to the legislature and she basically runs the state when it comes to education. they do what she wants. in the year 2000, she and her husband sponsored a referendum to change the state constitution to permit public noun go to religious schools and the voters turned it down 69% to 31%. then dick devos ran for governor in 2006 and he lost and so they decided better to work from the inside. and what they have been able to do is to create like the wild west of charters. i read the law. anyone can open a charter. you or i could go to michigan and open a charter and they would give us money. if we can gather students, we can collect the money to open charters. >> there's literally -- we should say there are lots of people in the charter mutual which is a movement you are quite skeptical of, there are people in that movement who are -- do not like devos

in fact betsy devos was in this. was a great debate between her and somebody on the side of public schools or government schools as you call them. >> government-run schools. they'rall public. melissa: what her, that she is trying to drain public schools of money. they're basically collapsing as a result of people like her and they point to detroit and other places where she has been very active, say she is siphoning off money and trying to make schools private and even for profit. what do you think of that? >> yes. and that's okay. because the money should follow the kids and if the public but not government-run charter schools are more appealing to parents, and money goes with them, so the remaining public schools have less, that's okay. but also, i'm overstating it because the charter money is not as much as the government-run schools get. let's say they spend in detroit $12,000 on the government-run schools. they only get 10,000 to the charters. every time a kid leaves in a way they gain $2,000. if you say the par

what's your objection to betsy devos. >> our concern is betsy devos has not had any history in promoting, supporting or helping public schools whatsoever. her entire agenda -- she has a long track record of privatizing education, promoting the privatization of education and what we believe we need is a strong, high-quality public school for every child, no ifs, ands or buts. >> a spokesman on capitol hill was praising devos as a disrupter. is that not a good thing to have somebody that is a disrupter coming in? >> we have tried disruption and disruption wreaks chaos. we need to try supporting our public schools, we need to listen to the experts in our public schools. those are the people who care most about our student and our public schools are the educators meeting their needs every day. >> former republican candidate jeb bush, who has clashed with the teacher unions down in florida, education is a policy he is very passionate about, has an op-ed out in "usa today" this morning. think you've seen it. he says, "while america is blessed with many great teachers who are motivated by doing

the teacher unions are opposed to betsy devos. she will be accused of wanting to privatize and defund our public school. another well known reformer said devosrepresents change. >> she will go right at what i call 30 years ago the blob. that clogs up the american education system. >> reporter: if you want to see fireworks. tune in to fox business 5:00 eastern and they will take it live, sandrare a. >> indeed. the pick for trump's education secretary betsy devoswill be aired in the entirity when it begins at 5:00 p.m. eastern. >>> the head of boeing summoned for a second meeting with with donald trump. they had a good first meeting about lowering the cost of the fighter jets. do we know what came out of the meeting with bog ceo? >> reporter: we do, sandra. he came with with a follow-up promise that the cost of next generation of a force one is lower than the president-elect feared it was. he brought with him to trump tower specifics of how he will keep the costs down. >> we made great progress. we are stream lining the process. str

. >> woodruff: now, president- elect trump's pick for secretary of education: betsy devos. is a non-traditional choice, and a power player in republican circles. her supporters applaud a woman they see as a disrupter focused on children. her critics worry she will erode crucial funds for public schools, and that she has not been forthright in her own financial disclosures. she is on capitol hill as we speak for her confirmation hearing, and it is the focus of our weekly segment, "making the grade." william brangham is our guide. >> brangham: shortly after betsy devos's confirmation hearing began this evening, she made one thing clear: she plans to push for expanded school choice around the country, much as she did during her two decades as a major political force in her home state of michigan. >> parents no longer believe that a one-size-fits-all model of learning meets the needs of every child, and they know other options exist, whether magnet, virtual, charter, home, religious, or any combination thereof. yet, too many parents are denied access to the full range of option

the big problem with devos for the democrats is ideological. they have a really different point of view. people have latched on because they think it's funny. what she said is this is something that should be left to locales and states, a boilerplate conservative thing to say. and in fact there is a school in wyoming that has a problem with grizzly bears. that's a true statement. whether it should be handled with guns or bear spray is a separate question. but her point it's a local issue isn't that crazy. >> right. she was referencing somebody else who had talked about it. >> carl? >> we have a president-elect of the united states who went to the voters and said i'm going to drain the swamp and what a lot of this stuff is about is the absolute unwillingness of the republicans to go anywhere near draining the swamp. they want to rush these things through, don't want these people properly vetted. what we see in a couple nominees is they're waist deep in big money. price, for instance. and they want to push them through. meanwhile, the great disma

it sounds like they will vote on the nominee, betsy devos, next tuesday. we know for a fact, the judiciary committee, voting on jeff sessions, and also for ben carson, that will get a vote next tuesday as well. to ohio, tony. caller: thank you for taking my call. i know a little bit about education. i'm married to an educator here in the state of ohio. in the state of ohio, to be a building principal, you need a masters in education. this particular nominee has a bachelors in business, i believe. the common core was a state governor association initiative, not a federal initiative. host: what she asked much about common core during the hearing? did that come up much? caller: i did not hear so much. did you? host: i'm just asking if it came up. thank you for calling in this evening. let's get a couple more. louisiana, republican line. hi to joe. caller: thank you for taking my call. they are trying to confirm, and she is getting battered by a bunch of democrats. i kind of understand, a tough situation. that's all it got to say. thank you. more one board her

of course betsy devos.o you heard jim sciutto reporting battles with other countries weather john lewis. is this a sign of weakness or strength that nobody really know where is he stands or will come down and therefore he has all the control? >> i think it's sowing a lot of doubt in the minds of peel overseas about where he's going. he seems erratic and his temperament is not one they're accustomed to. i think we saw something important. didn't start with donald trump but that he is pulling back american leadership from the global order. he wants to come back home. you see europe is starting to unravel, under a lot of pressure, even nato under pressure now. symbolically as the old world odder is crumbling before our eyes, here today the president of china stepped forward into the breach, comes into the -- >> with a big speech. >> big speech in davos. you normally go to the world economic forum sessions in davos, and this is the first time the chinese president is there, and he is asserting he is going to be

devos. and we are treating her the same waive we treated him. and i think that's what i would call the golden rule. >> i did not hear one member of the committee ask to ask more questions. here virtually every member of the minority is asking to as more questions. >> we have -- because you have got a nominee of the republican party. we are not going to treat a republican nominee differently than we treat a democratic nominee. we have had the same -- we had the same situation with both of president obama's nominees. so we'll go -- >> i want to put in the record that michael levitt had two rounds. >> he was never the education secretary. >> rod paige under bush had 10-minute round. there is other precedence. >> i appreciate that, senator murray. i'm trying to be fair by treating mrs. devos the same as we treated both of president obama's education nominees. we'll go next to senator cassidy. >> good to see you again. enjoyed our meeting in anticipation of this. i'm struck -- the kind of reaction your nomination has elicited. do you support public e

devos: i will support with the president-elect does. if the question is around gun violence and the results of my heartase know that bleeds and is broken for those families that have lost any individual due to gun violence. sen. murphy: i look forward to working with you, but i also look forward to you coming to connecticut to talk about the role of guns in schools. sen. alexander: thank you, senator murphy. senator scott. senator scott: thank you for

devos. why?almost a full year last year in detroit having a front row seat as we were trying to not save that school system, but save opportunities for children, and i saw what she did firsthand in terms of buying off the legislature, and rewarding her friends and punishing her enemies. >> what about the school system? >> this is what we saw. if you look at her whole record, and she has been an active lobbyist for 30 years in education, and the man is absolutely right, she actively has been trying to defund and destabilize education throughout the country, and she's the most anti-education nominee ever nominated for that position. she worked to drain the public schools of funding, and things she supported drained the public schools of millions and millions of dollars, so that you had very little that helped kids in terms of detroit in the public schools, and at the same time, the stuff she was supporting, for-profit charters did just as bad if not worse. the for-profit charters in detroit, 80% of

n just a couple of hours betsy devos will testify. her nomination causing a lot of talk among teachers. we are going to be digging in on the future of our kids' schools this hour coming up. >> >>> and we have brand-new polling out on obamacare as republicans move forward with their plans to repeal the law. on a busy tuesday let us begin with kristen welker. she is covering the latest on the trump transition in new york in front of trump tower. cia director john brennan firing back after trump went after him and the cia on twitter. what's the latest on that? >> reporter: well, this is an ongoing feud. and it continues to escalate, kate. president-elect trump has consistently lashed out at the intelligence community, even suggesting that outgoing cia director john brennan could be behind some of those recent leaks. in his exit interview with the "wall street journal," he has said categorically that is false. and he has come out swinging, kate. let me read you a portion of that exe in the wurn really taking aim at trump for suggesting th

devos' legacy. ack when i taught tameka and her colleagues and classmates at barton, clara barton high school in brooklyn they should say to me often, you can't just talk the talk. you got to walk the walk. or words to that effect. for a secretary of education, that means doing all you can to strengthen and improve public education. to do that, though, you have to first experience it. you have to be willing to walk the walk. as the former secretary of education in virginia and -- ann holton did, who is with us today. to that end, i extend both a challenge and an invitation to ms. devos. spend some time in public schools. there's no substitute for seeing firsthand what works in our public schools or for seing the indefensible conditions that many students, teachers, and school staff endure. come to some of the places a.f.t. members are working their hearts out for our students. come to rural mcdowell county, west virginia, the eighth poorest county in our country, where many voted for donald trump. a

betsy devos has refused to pay an old election fine. and by the way, the fact that her hearing was so appalling to so many americans, 15 million people, we sent out just a video of a couple of the questions. 15 million people have seen it and if you go look on the social media, trump supporters are saying, why the heck did he nominate her? rex tillerson has refused to recuse himself from matters relating to exxonmobil for the length of his term. amazing. head of the biggest oil company, and after one year he can do things to help it again. his work there decades. and just this morning, we've learned that steve mnuchin tried to hide his holdings in the cayman islands from the finance committee. the list goes on and on and every day there is a report of a major ethical lapse by this cabinet, the swamp cabinet. the president-elect isn't draining the swamp with his cabinet picks. he's filling it up, contrary to everything he promised during his campaign. these issues and others deserve to be thoroughly and rigorously reviewed by the senate.

do think that there would be that possibility. >> reporter: more concerning to some democrats are devos' qualifications or they argue, lack thereof, pointing to this response to a basic question on the best way to evaluate student test scores. >> i'm talking about the debate between proficiency and growth, what your thoughts are on that. >> well, i was just asking to clarify, then -- >> well, this is a subject that has been debated in the education community for years. >> reporter: devos' biggest stumble, on guns in schools. >> you can't say definitively today that guns shouldn't be in schools? >> reporter: i will refer back to senator enzi and the school that he was talking about in wyoming. i think probably there i would imagine that there's probably a gun in the school to protect from potential grizzlies. >> potential grizzlies going viral overnight. if confirmed, devos would likely shape education policy through school choice, including voucher programs, something donald trump supports. the new administration pledging to put $20 billion towards school choice, eventually hoping to pr

also, we'll discuss new efforts to derail education secretary nominee betsy devos. first, with the american federation of teachers president randi weingarten on one side, then, with formal education secretary bill bennett on the other. then, tucker carlson joins us to discuss my white house interviews and the administration's latest moves. but we begin with the first 100 days exclusive on day ten, as k.t. mcfarland grants us her very first interview since being appointed president trump's deputy national security advisor and discusses both the travel ban and the controversial reorganization of the national security council. ♪ >> martha: k.t. mcfarland, thank you so much for being with us to be dumb i care today. >> it a pleasure and an honor. >> martha: give everyone a sense of what the role is at the nic and with the national security council is all about i. >> it is good that you ask that. people think about foreign policy and they think there is the state department, the defense department. the intelligence community, there is somebody that brings them altogether

devos. the committee chair senator lamar says the earliest it would be next week when the committee would decide if they would vote to confirm devos and pass that on to the full senate for a vote. back to you. lauren: adam shapiro, thank you. nicole: reporting from washington, president obama is commuting to army -- white house officials say the president was new to grant an a because chelsea manning has showed remorse. others see the move as totally hypocritical. >> i think it is simply astonishing that the president at the same time would be so exercised over the podesta releases prove a few weeks and then be extending commuting the sentence of chelsea manning. nicole: top congressional republicans condemned the decision calling it outrageous. descendents is now set to expire may 17th. president obama said to hold his final press conference at 2:15 p.m. eastern time today. live from the fox business network. lauren: of those announcing layoffs. the chain is eliminating 2400 positions. most

but betsy devos is looking at a miracle to transform the students to-- charter schools do better than public schools and crave an environment for learning. parents may have been indifferent and kids indifferent in that kind of irment voo -- environment. by golly, they change, it's know the static, people change in a good way. >> julie: and my point about the pell grant, college age school vouchers and why don't we-- >> if it works for vouchers and-- >> i know that john tamney is not a fan of department of education. it's got to start somewhere. is this the place where the revolution in education could tart? >> i don't think so. why is it that conservatives want to then have the government centrally plan our way out of the education problem? i'm all for competition, i think it improves school, but i'm with bill and always have been with bill on this. bad schools are more than people want to admit a function of disinterested students and disinterested parents, if you don't fix that. david: if you give parents more power, they will become mo more. >> trace true. >> they will, number one.

the betsy devos hearing is going to be the controversial one today. this hearing has already been e delay delayed. it was supposed to be sometime last week. that's partly because they didn't have her financial forms together. she is a billionaire. her family has been very involved financially in michigan politics. there have also been questions about ethics forums still not publicly available at the office of government ethics website. you can go and read ryan zinke's forms there if you want but not betsy devos. teachers unions are opposed to her primarily because she's been one of the most prominent supporters of charter schools and voucher programs in the state of michigan. she was a key person behind the push to allow charter schools in michigan and of course a lot of these teachers unions are very concerned about what those schools -- the damage they can do on the unions to public school systems. steph? >> i have to step in because we have breaking news. there's some sharp words coming right now from none other than vladimir putin. the russian pre