SECRETARY OF EDUCATION: BETSY DEVOS

summary

Trump’s pick for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, has never worked in education. She has never taught or even attended a public school. She’s never held elected office. Her experience in education is only as an advocate and financier for privatized schooling initiatives and “school choice” expansion. Through her educational advocacy in her home state of Michigan, DeVos applied the conservative mantra that private is always better than public simply by virtue of being private.

Don't let arguments about DeVos become debates on education ideology, her particular philosophy is more extreme and more demonstrably unsuccessful than other charter school and school choice advocates. She’s also the least qualified secretary of education in American history.

background

THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION (DoED)

• The Secretary of Education oversees the DoED in distributing federal education funding as well as collecting data on public schooling and enforcing anti-discrimination laws. The secretary also advises the president on federal education policy.
• In 2001, Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” encouraged the DoED to take a more hands-on approach to school policy. “No Child Left Behind” used the denial of federal funding to incentivize schools that were underperforming to do better.
• Currently the DoED awards grant money to schools that perform to certain standards.

SECRETARY BETSY DEVOS

• Elizabeth “Betsy” DeVos, is the daughter of billionaire industrialist Edgar Prince. She is the wife of Richard Devos Jr, the son of the billionaire founder of Amway.
• Betsy & Richard DeVos have given millions to Republican candidates and groups nationally and in their home state of Michigan.
• DeVos was the chairwoman for the American Federation for Children, a Washington-based organization that advocates for school choice.
• DeVos & her husband founded the Dick & Betsy DeVos Family Foundation, a faith-based charitable organization mainly operating in Michigan. The foundation gives to Christian non-profits and educational organizations among others.
• DeVos has a strong roots in her homestate of Michigan both as a member of the Michigan Republican Party and as an advocate for school choice and school voucher programs.

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THE BEST DEFENSES

Response 1: DeVos has less experience for the job of secretary of education than every previous secretary of education.

• DeVos has never worked in education. She has never taught or even attended a public school. She’s never held elected office.
  • She is the only secretary of education in the history of the department who doesn’t fulfill at least one of these qualifications, making her the least qualified secretary of education in American history.

Response 2: Without DeVos’s political contributions, she would have no experience in education and would never have received this nomination. She is, therefore, receiving this nomination based on the money she's given to politicians. This “pay-for-play” style of politics is not only familiar to DeVos, she is proud of it.

• In DeVos’ Congressional hearing, Bernie Sanders asks DeVos whether she would have been appointed were she not wealthy, to which DeVos replies somewhat unconvincingly that it’s “possible.”
• She’s publicly talked about her and her family using their wealth to influence politics. In 1997, she wrote “My family is the largest single contributor of soft money to the national Republican party ... we expect a return on our investment.”
• Her family has donated over $200 million to Republicans and republican institutions.
• Even as she accepts the position as the Secretary of Education, she holds between $5 and $25 million of stock in an educational enhancement company. Her decisions as the secretary of education could impact her personal wealth through these stocks. She’s made no effort to sell her stake.

Response 3: DeVos seems to be uninterested in fulfilling several of the DoED’s missions.

• Part of DoED’s mission is “ensuring equal access to education.” One way the DoED does this is by supporting a strong public school system and laws like the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) that requires schools to provide free and appropriate education to students with disabilities.
  • DeVos advocates moving money from the largely underfunded public school system to charter schools.
  • She said states should get to decide if they abide by IDEA or not.
  • In theory, school choice promotes equality, because everyone has the option to attend the best school. However, in practice, when DeVos helped create a network of charter schools in Detroit through her advocacy and fundraising, wealthier, whiter students moved out of poorer school districts, thereby increasing inequality and segregation.
• One of the DoED's missions is to collect data on public schools, yet DeVos declined to say whether she would require statistics on school suspensions, expulsions, or other disciplinary actions.
• While not specifically contradicting one of the DoED’s missions, DeVos doesn't agree guns should be kept out of schools, citing a false and absurd example where guns might be required to protect schools from grizzly bears.

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Response 1: When Detroit implemented DeVos' educational philosophy, it failed spectacularly.

• DeVos and her Great Lakes Education Project (GLEP) political action committee put millions into creating an educational environment that encouraged charter schools. The result was a lot of half-empty, poorly performing charter schools. Other school choice advocates disagreed with DeVos’s completely unregulated educational environment. However, despite opposition from even her school choice allies, and continuing poor test results from charter schools, DeVos fought any increased regulation.

Response 2: Charter schools have less accountability than public schools.

• Charter schools have less accountability and less transparency as they are not subject to many regulations public schools face.
• In Michigan specifically, where DeVos has had the most influence, charter schools have ineffective regulations that allow failing charter schools to continue to operate.

Response 3: Charter schools tend to cut costs by paying teachers less, and consequently tend to have less experienced educators. They also tend to treat teachers poorly, further discouraging excellent teachers from working in charter schools.

• Charter school teachers tend to be paid less for longer hours and fewer worker protections. Consequently, they’re younger and less experienced.
• Charter school teachers have come forward with horror stories about being denied pay, pressured not to unionize, overworked, fired in mass, and subjected to other terrible working conditions.

Response 4: School choice tends to benefit students who need it less while punishing students that need it more. More economically stable families that have time to do comprehensive research on schools and can afford to drive their children further to get to a better school, benefit more from school choice. Less economically stable families that don’t have time to take advantage of school choice end up attending worse schools with even less funding.

• The school choice system only works if parents, when they have an option, pick better schools. Unfortunately, they don't. Parents tend, instead, to pick schools closer to them where they feel their child is “safer”. The result has been that bad charter schools have thrived.

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Warning

Arguments concerning public education are not black-and-white. There are wonderful charter schools and horrible ones. Aspects of what DeVos advocates for can work on a school-by-school basis. The trick in winning this argument is to point out that many other school choice advocates disagree with DeVos’s proposed complete lack of oversight and the Michigan school program, where DeVos had the most influences, is widely regarded--even among charter school advocates--as a failure.

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