Yesterday, the U.S. Senate approved the nomination of Betsy DeVos as secretary of education. Below is a statement from NEA Rhode Island (NEARI) President Larry Purtill:

"Betsy DeVos is the most exceptionally unqualified cabinet nominee in history with zero experience in public education, administration or even as a parent of a public school student. Unfortunately, the Senate chose to ignore the thousands of voices from across the country who joined together to clog phone lines and flood inboxes in opposition to her and the Trump-DeVos agenda.

"The DeVos confirmation does not magically silence our voices. The massive nationwide public outcry by educators, administrators, parents, students, civil rights groups, special education advocates and others is just the beginning. The level of activism we have seen is incredibly encouraging and we will continue to resist policies detrimental to public education and work together to protect our students and educators.

"On behalf of our 12,000 members, I’d like to thank Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse and Congressmen Jim Langevin and David Cicilline who, with their Democratic colleagues, fought tooth and nail to quash this nomination.

"They never gave up and neither will we."