Washington, D.C. - Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet today voted to oppose the nomination of Betsy DeVos to serve as President Trump's Secretary of Education.

"There is nothing in the conversations I've had with this nominee, or in her experience in Michigan or Detroit, that gives me confidence that she can lead us in the direction we need, which is to ensure that every kid in America has access to high-quality education, whether or not they are born into wealth," Bennet said. "That is why I will vote against this nomination."

In remarks during the Senate committee's vote on Devos, Bennet, a former superintendent of the Denver Public Schools, discussed the inequalities in the American public education system.

"While we have these partisan squabbles in the Senate, there are millions of American kids who are attending schools that are foreclosing on their future from the start," Bennet said. "There are millions of people teaching today in America who have a job that is much harder than anyone on this panel, who are not being adequately supported in their work."

"I was a school superintendent of an urban school district," he added. "The last thing I wanted was the federal government telling me what to do. But I believe we have a profound national interest to ensure that more than 9 out of 100 kids born into poverty in this country are able to obtain a college degree. We also have a profound national interest to attract the next 1.5 million teachers to teach, especially in our high poverty schools in our cities and rural communities."

Click here to see watch his full remarks during the Senate Health, Education, and Labor Committee's vote.