Through great Senate debate, Betsy DeVos has been confirmed as the Secretary of Education on President Trump’s Cabinet. The confirmation comes on a wave of controversy over Devos’s plans for education in the United States based on very different ideas than previous Secretaries of Education. The confirmation barely passed the Senate with a 51-50 vote that was broken by Vice President Mike Pence. This has been the first time that the Vice President has been used to break a tie in the Senate for confirming a Cabinet position.

Every Democratic Senator voted against DeVos and two Republican Senators, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, citing that DeVos was unqualified to be the Secretary of Education due to a lack of experience with public schools and laws even though she is driven to help students. The rest of the Republican Senators and Vice President Pence voted for Devos’s confirmation claiming that she is determined and committed to help all students across the United States in education. Many Republicans including former Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander criticized the Democrats opposition to DeVos claiming that they only opposed her because she was nominated by a Republican president and want to block any of his actions including holding a 24-hour vigil before the vote. Despite these claims, DeVos is the Secretary of Education.

According to what she has previously said, DeVos plans, as Secretary of Education, will expand the parents’ choice for their child’s education and encourage charter schools. She also plans to create vouchers from taxes to be for private schools in the hopes that lower income families will be more able to afford private school education. DeVos intends on more aggressively investigation rape allegations on college campuses due to the rise in rape charges. But until she starts her job as Secretary of Education, few know what she will do.

Despite the Democrats losing the vote, they promise to continue to fight DeVos’s actions and even lead protests at public appearances and speeches. The Republicans also promise to support DeVos and fight the Democratic opposition. Until then, the future of education will hang in limbo as the country waits to see what DeVos will actually do as Secretary of Education.