Betsy DeVos Nominated for Education Secretary

Trump has named Betsy DeVos, chair of the Alliance for School Choice, a group that promotes private school vouchers, to serve as Secretary of Education.

DeVos is a Republican megadonor from MI who has been active in promoting school choice, a movement that advocates the use of tax credits and vouchers to allow parents to opt out of the public school system.

Push-back from the teachers’ unions and education reform opponents was swift.

“I am honored to accept this responsibility to work with the President-elect on his vision to make American education great again”, Ms. DeVos said in a statement.

“The status quo in education is not acceptable”, DeVos said in a statement Wednesday.

But although Trump’s selection of DeVos shows his position on things like school vouchers and charter schools (more on that in a bit), it leaves open one of the biggest questions regarding education police in the Trump administration: Will Betsy DeVos get rid of the Common Core? .

He said: “I wouldn’t consider her to be right wing”.

DeVos and her husband led a failed effort to amend the MI constitution to provide vouchers that would allow students to attend private schools at public expense.

DeVos and Haley are the first women selected for top-level administration posts as the president-elect works to shape a White House team from scratch.

DeVos’ father is Edgar Prince, founder of the automotive parts supplier Prince Corporation, and her husband is Richard DeVos Jr., son of Amway co-founder Richard DeVos.

In terms of charter schools, DeVos has pushed for fewer regulations in her home state of MI.

Betsy was also slammed by some conservatives because of her reported support of Common Core standards in the past, which she disavowed on Twitter on November 22: “I am not a supporter – period”. DeVos has no meaningful experience in the classroom or in our schools.

Trump has criticized Common Core and pledged he would repeal the standards if elected, although state initiatives would not be under his purview. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, called DeVos the most “anti-public education nominee” in the history of the U.S. Department of Education.

Not least because she’s effective: DeVos won rave reviews (from Republicans) as head of the Michigan GOP, and as an activist and philanthropist has helped foster dramatic pro-kid education reform in multiple states.

“Her allegiance is to families, particularly those struggling at the bottom of the economic ladder, not to an outdated public education model that has failed them from one generation to the next”, Bush wrote.

The couple has four children, none of whom attended public school.

“This would not qualify as ‘draining the swamp, ‘” Cannon said, referencing Trump’s campaign slogan.