Trump’s billionaire education pick, Betsy DeVos: LA schools will not change

“Betsy DeVos is a brilliant and passionate education advocate”, Trump said. As New York Magazine’s Ed Kilgore recounted, “Dick DeVos was one of the early proponents of the rhetorical trick of undermining support for public schools by relabeling them “government schools”.

“DeVos has no meaningful experience in the classroom or in our schools”, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten said in a statement Wednesday.

While charter schools have won limited vouchers, they remain a polarizing issue, with most many opposing them, arguing that they drain public schools of needed resources and send taxpayer dollars to unaccountable private schools.

But the policy has also attracted much criticism, especially from teacher unions, which say standardized education will be threatened.

“She has ardently supported the unlimited, unregulated growth of charter schools in MI, elevating for-profit schools with no consideration of the severe harm done to traditional public schools”. “It will be exciting to see how her appointment gives her a bigger platform to further advance this important cause”.

DeVos was also a major contributor to the Republican Party campaign during the last elections, but did not support the candidacy of Trump.

But it would be unfair to suggest that DeVos hasn’t earned the nomination in her own right.

Lily Eskelsen Garcia, president of the National Education Association, voiced distress at Trump’s choice.

President Elect Donald Trump nominates one more Washington outsider for his administration.

A former member of the Michigan State Board of Education, Mr. DeVos was the Republican nominee for Michigan governor in 2006, running against Democratic incumbent Gov. Jennifer Granholm.

I mean – and Audie, this pick is really all about Trump advocating for school choice. Sometimes it’s not just students who need to do their homework. Currently, she chairs the board of Americans for Children, a major pro-privatization lobbying group. This includes the sentiments raised by the National Education Union, represented by some 3 million educators all across America.

In choosing DeVos to be his education secretary pick, Trump appears to be honoring a campaign pledge to make changes to school choice, although previous efforts to invest in charter schools have failed to make progress in Congress.

“Have organizations that I have been a part of supported Common Core?”

“To clarify, I am not a supporter – period”, she tweeted Wednesday as questions circulated about her position on the Common Core learning standards adopted by many states to improve student readiness for college or a career. She and her husband, entrepreneur Dick DeVos, created the West Michigan Aviation Academy, a charter high school in Grand Rapids, in 2011.