Dive Brief:

• The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions was supposed to consider Betsy DeVos for U.S. secretary of Education on Wednesday, but it will delay the hearing until January 17.
• While Democrats had objected to a hearing before the Office of Government Ethics finishes its review of DeVos’ potential conflicts of interest, NPR reports the stated reason for the delayed hearing was to accommodate the Senate schedule at the request of the chamber's leadership.
• Politico reports the hearing will start at 5 p.m. Jan. 17, and Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), the committee’s chair, said the delay will not interrupt plans to have committee members vote on DeVos’ nomination Jan. 24.

Dive Insight:

In a string of contentious nominations, DeVos has been one of the more controversial. The Washington Post identified her as one of eight cabinet nominees Democrats planned to target during the coming hearings, potentially postponing confirmations until March. Neither DeVos nor her children have attended public schools, and she has never worked in any, and critics say she is particularly unqualified to be the secretary of education.

Private schools and charters are likely to find an ally in DeVos if she is confirmed. As a billionaire philanthropist, DeVos has supported limited regulation of charter schools and the creation or expansion of voucher programs to allow families to use public dollars to send their children to private schools.