When is a Senate hearing popular viewing? When Elizabeth Warren is doing the questioning:
Make that 7.9 million in 15 hours. It’s not just that it’s Elizabeth Warren, though. The person struggling to answer Warren’s questions was Trump education nominee Betsy DeVos, and the subject was predatory for-profit colleges and universities.
Warren went in on Trump University, saying it made her “curious” how the Trump administration would protect students from waste, fraud, and abuse by for-profit colleges. DeVos’s answer: she’d have people for that. Would DeVos enforce rules like the gainful employment rule, which requires that career colleges are actually preparing students for jobs that exist, not cheating them by making big promises and leaving them with loads of debt and no job? DeVos dodged—she’d review the rule—but definitely didn’t commit to enforcing it. Warren:
I don’t understand about reviewing it. We talked about this in my office. There are already rules in place to stop waste, fraud, and abuse, and I don’t understand how you can not be sure about enforcing them. You know, swindlers and crooks are out there doing back flips when they hear an answer like this. If confirmed, you will be the cop on the beat, and if you can’t commit to use the tools that are already available to you in the Department of Education, then I don’t see how you can be the secretary of education.
Betsy DeVos is not here to protect students. That came through loud and clear in her answers to Warren, and millions of people are watching.