Trump ' s Billionaire Education Secretary Has Been Trying to Gut Public Schools for Years
Meet Betsy DeVos , the anti-union , pro-voucher surprise nominee .
K R I S T I N A R I Z G A
Last Wednesday , President-elect Donald Trump announced that he would nominate billionaire activist and Republican fundraiser Betsy DeVos as his education secretary . The news came as a shock to the education world — DeVos ' ideas for school reforms are even more radical than what Trump proposed on the campaign trail . Trump ' s signature education proposal calls for dedicating $ 20 billion in federal money to promote " school choice ": market-driven education reforms that help families move away from what Trump has called " failing government schools " and instead choose private , religious , or charter schools . The movement for charter schools is bipartisan : Republicans and many centrist Democrats support it . But the DeVos family has been promoting a much more radical idea of choice — one that favors moving public funding to private and religious schools over charters . Education historian Diane Ravitch believes that — if confirmed by the Senate — DeVos will become the most radical , anti-public-school education secretary since the Office of Education was established in 1867 . " Never has anyone been appointed to lead in the past 150 years who was hostile to public education ," Ravitch told Mother Jones . Here are the three most important things to know about Trump ' s education nominee :
THE DEVOS FAMILY IS AMONG AMERICA ' S MOST WEALTHY , CONSERVATIVE CLANS A daughter of privilege , DeVos is married to Richard ( Dick ) DeVos Jr ., whose father , Richard Sr ., cofounded the multilevel-marketing empire Amway and was Ahead of the 1980 elections , Ronald Reagan personally asked [ Richard DeVos Sr .] to lead the GOP ' s national fundraising efforts . Short on cash and worth an estimated $ 5.1 billion . In 1992 , Dick DeVos succeeded his father as the president and CEO of Amway and has been the face of the DeVos political dynasty . While the DeVoses aren ' t as well known as conservative philanthropists like the Koch brothers , they played a key role in building the modern conservative movement and pushing the Republican Party further to the right . Since 1970 , the DeVoses have invested at least $ 200 million in various right-wing causes — think tanks , media outlets , political committees , and advocacy groups — as a 2014 Mother Jones investigation revealed . " There ' s not a Republican president or presidential candidate in the last 50 years who hasn ' t known the DeVoses ," Saul Anuzis , a former chairman of the Michigan Republican Party , told my former colleague Andy Kroll .
As Kroll wrote in that 2014 piece : reeling from Jimmy Carter ' s election and the aftershocks of the Watergate scandal , the party needed all the help it could get . As the Republican National Committee ' s finance chairman , DeVos raised $ 46.5 million ($ 132 million in today ' s dollars ). At a party meeting in 1982 , he called the recession that was spiking inflation and unemployment " beneficial " and " a cleansing tonic " for society .
In the ' 80s and ' 90s , Betsy climbed the party ranks to become a Republican National Committeewoman , chair numerous US House and Senate campaigns in Michigan , lead statewide party
Disclaimer : The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of The New Heights Education Group .
Continued Next Page 8