Grassley, Ernst get thousands of DeVos calls

IOWA CITY - As U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley cast his vote Tuesday for Betsy DeVos to become Education Secretary, his office had received thousands of emails and voicemails about the appointment - including many messages staff didn't have time to listen to or pass on to Grassley before the vote.

'It's hard to calculate an exact amount because the contacts are still being processed, including voicemail messages,” Grassley Spokeswoman Jill Gerber said in an email Wednesday. 'We have a large number of voicemail messages that we're still listening to, and we listen to each one, so it'll take a while.”

The U.S. Senate split 50-50 on DeVos, with Vice President Mike Pence breaking the tie in favor of the controversial appointment. Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski, of Alaska, and Susan Collins, of Maine, voted against DeVos, a school voucher and charter school advocate who has acknowledged giving hundreds of millions of dollars to political candidates.

The DeVos appointment prompted protests and school 'walkouts” Wednesday, including on the University of Iowa campus, where dozens gathered on the Pentacrest in Iowa City with signs and bull horns.

'I think we should demand that the qualifications for being in positions of power, and positions of authority over education, and being an educator should not be based on whether you have a lot of money or who you know,” Landon Elkind, UI graduate student union president, said during the rally. 'That doesn't actually give you the authority or knowledge or wisdom or even empathy to be in charge of the Department of Education.”

Public school advocates in Iowa and across the country pushed voters in recent weeks to ask their senators to oppose DeVos. Grassley allocated extra staff time to receiving messages from Iowans about President Donald Trump's cabinet nominees, Gerber said. Still, the volume of calls about DeVos was 'among the highest volume.”

'Organized campaigns against the nomination have generated numerous contacts to the office from Iowans and nationally. Thousands of calls and emails have come in, including contacts from those who have called or emailed more than once,” she said. 'It's important to note that opposition efforts tend to generate many more contacts than those in support of a particular position or nominee.”

Gerber said she couldn't quantify how many more messages were in opposition to DeVos than in support of the nominee. Because U.S. Senators aren't subject to the federal Freedom of Information Act, the office does not have to release data about calls or emails.

For his part, Grassley said he thought DeVos was a victim of misinformation.

'She's committed to being an advocate for great public schools,” Grassley wrote in a statement on his website. 'What's more, her job will not be to oversee public schools. That's handled at the state and local school board levels. The role of the U.S. Secretary of Education is to implement federal education programs, which are largely targeted at providing additional assistance to disadvantaged students and students with disabilities whether they attend public or private schools.”

Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Red Oak, also voted for DeVos, releasing a statement Tuesday that said the nominee 'shares the belief that those closest to our students - from parents to teachers to local administrators and local elected officials - know what is best for our students.”

When asked to quantify how many contacts Ernst's office had received for DeVos and how many were opposed to the candidate, spokeswoman Leigh Claffey said 'we have heard from thousands of folks on the debate over Betsy DeVos.” No additional details were provided about the contacts.

State Sen. Joe Bolkcom, D-Iowa City, expressed profound disappointment at the DeVos appointment on Wednesday, calling her, 'the most unqualified person to lead the education of our kids.”

'It's astounding that she made it through,” he said.

Bolkcom said he's hopeful, however, that most of what happens in classrooms is decided at a local level.

'Hopefully we'll continue to get federal resources to Iowa for education and, beyond that, hopefully she is far enough away that she can do little damage to our schools,” he said.

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