Who is Betsy DeVos, Trump’s pick for ed secretary?

Both Trump’s transition team and DeVos’ office did not immediately return requests for comment. Democrats, while in the minority in the Senate, are still able to filibuster laws, and much of the education system is run at the state and local level.

Bush also praised DeVos for her work in “championing the right of all parents to choose schools that best ensure their children’s success” in this same post.

If the DeVos name sounds familiar, it’s one of the most important funders of conservative politicians and issues.

As Rachel Tabachnik, an extraordinary researcher and writer on the conservative movement, has pointed out, “The Prince and DeVos families are at the intersection of radical free market privatization and the Religious Right, and have made an enormous impact on the current political atmosphere”.

However, her supporters welcomed her placement as the Secretary of Education and are of the view that she is dedicated to improving the school education system.

Along with South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, whom Trump recently tapped to be his Ambassador to the United Nations, and Mitt Romney, who is being considered for Secretary of State, DeVos did not back the President-elect during the primaries.

The fact is, we’ve always known how to produce good public schools, and in white, well-off neighborhoods we continue to do so.

“She funds a variety of nonprofits”.

“The regulators of the schools should be the parents, the parents who care for their children”, Diament said. Since then, MI has become one of the leading charter-school states as measured by the proportion of children attending charters, and is also the state with the largest percentage of students attending charters run by for-profit corporations. “The situation is so bad that national philanthropists interested in school reform refuse to work in Detroit”.

Betsy DeVos’ advocate is for “school choice”, which means she supports having more options for families to choose from aside from just public schools.

The DeVos pick was applauded by many conservatives who favor expanded school choice in the K-12 education sphere. The DeVos family also has a long record of donating to anti-LGBTQ causes and organizations, including giving more than $6.7 million to the anti-LGBTQ group Focus on the Family since 1998.

Another issue for progressives is that almost 90 percent of charter schools employ non-union teachers.

DeVos has a wide-ranging background in Republican politics, having served as a member of the Republican National Committee and chair of the Republican Party in MI.

Republicans and teachers unions had complained that the draft rules released in May didn’t provide states and districts with sufficient time to assess schools in need of help.

Hoosiers for Quality Education PAC has mainly supported Republicans and contributed large amounts to the campaigns of former Indiana State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett and incoming state schools chief Jennifer McCormick. The ACLU is still concerned that tax dollars are going to teach voucher students creationism in voucher-funded religious schools. It will be like Bill Bennett under Reagan. In attempting to achieve that goal, however, they essentially provide government support for the erosion of public school funding. Given the importance of these schools to our country, that’s where the emphasis needs to be. The elder Trump has said he would earmark $20 billion in federal money to charter more independent schools or for vouchers for poorer families to pay for private schools. “Not only does the federal government lack constitutional jurisdiction (outside of Washington, D.C., military installations, and tribal lands), but a federal voucher program poses a danger to school choice efforts nationwide because a less-friendly future administration could attach regulations that undermine choice policies”. “We are confident Betsy will take the same passion, commitment and leadership she’s shown in the school choice movement to the helm of the U.S. Department of Education”. “The country deserves an Education Secretary who will advocate for those children and their families and represent their interests”.