Betsy DeVos

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump’s nomination of school choice activist Betsy DeVos as education secretary is on thin ice after two Republican senators vowed to vote against her.

DeVos, a billionaire Republican donor who spent more than two decades promoting charter schools, has emerged as one of Trump’s most controversial Cabinet picks facing fierce opposition from Democrats, teachers unions and civil rights activists. With Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska in opposition, the nomination could die if DeVos loses the support of one more Republican — and all Democrats vote against her.

Murkowski said she believed DeVos has much to learn about public education.

“I have serious concerns about a nominee to be secretary of education who has been so involved on one side of the equation, so immersed in the push for vouchers that she may be unaware of what actually is successful within the public schools and also what is broken and how to fix them,” Murkowski said.

If all other GOP senators support DeVos, and all Democrats oppose her, she would end up with a 50-50 vote in the Senate and Vice President Mike Pence would have to break the tie to confirm her. A vote is expected in the coming days.

Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, the Republican chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, praised DeVos and expressed confidence that she would be confirmed.

“Mrs. DeVos believes in our children, their teachers and parents — she believes in the local school board instead of the national school board,” Alexander said in a statement. “She’s committed to public education, and there’s no better example of that than her work on the most important reform of public schools in the last 30 years — public charter schools.”

White House press secretary Sean Spicer said he wasn’t concerned about the defections by Collins and Murkowski.