FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
February 7, 2017
CONTACT: Sarah Schultz, sarah.schultz@youngin
[WASHINGTON] – Earlier today, Betsy DeVos was narrowly confirmed as the 11th United States Secretary of Education after Vice President Pence voted to confirm, breaking a 50-50 tie. After the vote, Rory O’Sullivan, Young Invincibles’ Deputy Director, released the following statement:
“As we were throughout her confirmation process, Young Invincibles remains seriously concerned about Mrs. DeVos serving as the Secretary of the Department of Education, namely due to her lack of clarity and commitment to issues concerning Millennials and higher education. In her hearing and on-record responses, Mrs. Devos failed to address how she would stop the staggering increases in student debt, whether she would protect Pell grants and other forms of student aid, how she would use data to help students and families make more informed college choices, and how she would assist millions of student loan borrowers struggling with a complex system and unmanageable monthly payments. We simply do not know what she stands for. Moreover, Mrs. DeVos would not commit to enforcing existing consumer protections like the gainful employment and borrower defense rules, which are the only guardrails against predatory schools who target veterans and hardworking students, subsisting almost entirely on taxpayer dollars.
In a time when over 40 million borrowers are grappling with 1.3 trillion dollars of growing student debt, the Secretary of Education must be prepared to prioritize these issues, for the sake of not only today’s students, but the future of the country. Young Invincibles stands ready to advocate for our generation’s affordable access to quality higher education, and will do all we can to demonstrate to Secretary DeVos the importance of these issues in the months to come.”