More than a hundred teachers, parents and other Coloradans rallied outside Sen. Cory Gardner’s empty downtown Denver office Saturday, urging the Republican to vote against Department of Education nominee Betsy DeVos.
The crowd chanted “Public education is not for sale” and “Dump DeVos” while holding homemade signs and denouncing claims Gardner made to CBS4 and 9News, saying some protesters were paid. The crowd made it clear that Gardner’s vote would affect him one way or another at the polls.
“We have a long memory,” said Keith Camhi, who is a parent in the Cherry Creek School District. “What you do here will be a part of your legacy for better or worse for a long time.”
Devos’ nomination has been controversial. Critics say she is unqualified, pointing to a lack of experience with public schools. She experienced a rocky senate hearing in which cited danger from bears as a reason to allow guns on campus and suggested that states should be able to decide if they will enforce the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. She later clarified her position on the latter, saying she understood that IDEA is federal law and should be made stronger.
Critics also said she exemplifies “pay-to-play” as a billionaire Republican donor who donated to President Donald Trump’s campaign. She and her family also donated to the campaigns of several GOP senators, including Gardner.
Supporters say she is a political outsider who champions school choice. They laud her for backing laws supporting vouchers and similar programs that put public funds toward private school tuition. They say she’s an education advocate who spent 30 years on the frontlines.
So far, two Republicans have said they will oppose DeVos, potentially creating a tie vote that would need to be broken by Vice President Mike Pence. But if Gardner joined Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, DeVos’s nomination would be defeated in an unprecedented manner.
The crowd acknowledged that Gardner and his staff were not at his office Saturday, noting that the senator was attending a fundraising event in Florida. To get their message across, organizers urged attendees to take to Twitter as well as continue to call and e-mail the senator.
Ralliers said they had been phoning Gardner — some once or twice while others said they’ve rung up the senator every day for the past two or three weeks.
In an interview Friday, Gardner’s communication director Alex Siciliano said the senator has received 22,000 phone calls in January alone. During his first two years in the Senate, Gardner’s office sent and received over 500,000 constituent e-mails and letters. In comparison, the office has received more than 120,000 correspondences in January.
Siciliano said the staff of 40 has people whose sole responsibility is listening to every voicemail and compiling the concerns to relay to Gardner. Siciliano said he understood peoples’ frustrations when they get the voicemail, but emphasized that the senator was listening to their concerns.
Siciliano couldn’t be reached Saturday.
Saturday’s rally was started by Ilana Spiegel and other parents who had tried calling Gardner but wanted to do more, Spiegel said.
“We need a secretary to be a champion for all of our children, not just some,” Spiegel said to the crowd. “Our kids deserve better.”
Although the crowd was mostly teachers and parents, a few students also attended. Douglas County teen Olivia Booth attended with her father, a public school teacher in Jefferson County for almost 20 years, and her mother.
“I’m in public school so I’ve seen the effect our state’s already had,” Booth said, pointing to budget cuts and having 40 students in one classroom. “You should not put a price tag on my education and future students’ education.”
Douglas County resident Pete Allen was not a parent, teacher or student. Instead, he said he was a concerned citizen. He held a sign that called Gardner a paid protester, alluding to the $49,800 of campaign contributions the DeVos family gave to the senator.
DougCo resident Pete Allen: "The same way we voted our school board members out of office…" /1 pic.twitter.com/kthQr6qHY1
— Danika Worthington (@Dani_Worth) February 4, 2017
@Dani_Worth "…we will vote him out of office if he doesn't represent our interests." /2
— Danika Worthington (@Dani_Worth) February 4, 2017
Allen said the county school board was conservative and its board members implemented a voucher program similar to one DeVos supports. The School Choice Grant Program was mired in legal challenges and received little traction, eventually being killed by the school board in November. A previous voucher program was halted by an injunction in 2015 after the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that public money could not be spent on religious education.
Allen noted the county voted out three members of the school board in 2015.
“The same way we voted our school board members out of office, we will vote him out of office if he doesn’t represent our interests,” Allen said.