Donald Trump Uses Thanksgiving To Announce Betsy DeVos As Education Secretary
On the eve of Thanksgiving, President-elect Donald Trump has announced Michigan republican Betsy DeVos as his education secretary. Whilst Devos is hardly a household name, it could perhaps have been predicted that the billionaire would win a plum job in Trump’s government. A cynic might argue that DeVos has used her money to buy her way to the post she craves in Trump’s administration. According to The New Yorker, the Devos family has a history of buying their way to powerful positions.
“In 1980, the DeVos family contributed heavily to the election of Ronald Reagan, and Richard DeVos, Sr., was named the finance chair of the Republican National Committee. Two years later, he was removed, after calling the brutal 1982 recession a ‘cleansing process,’ and insisting that anyone who was unemployed simply didn’t want to work.”
It is believed that the Devos family donated millions of dollars to the Trump campaign, so many will believe that Betsy’s appointment is a reward for those donations. Admittedly DeVos is an avowed education reformer, though many view her reforms as controversial. The Washington Post reports that Devos, a Michigan billionaire and conservative activist, has already affected the education system in some states as she pushes the “charter schools” agenda.
Betsy DeVos, Trump’s Education Pick, Has Steered Money From Public Schools https://t.co/Rm0WPozfi3
— Joy Dees (@onelittlejoy) November 24, 2016
DeVos has been a major force behind the controversial voucher programs, which use tax-dollars to send children to religious or private schools. As long ago as 2011 critics of voucher schemes claimed that children were not benefiting from the schemes.
According to Time Magazine, there is nothing to suggest that voucher recipients do better academically that their state school peers.
“Overall the test scores of students who use vouchers are largely indistinguishable from students who stay behind in public schools. Vouchers certainly do not hurt students, but promises of dramatic improvement are not supported by the overall evidence.”
It’s Thanksgiving But Will We Be Giving Thanks For Devos’ Appointment
With DeVos’ appointment, she will now be in a position to spread her educational preferences nationwide but will we be giving thanks for the changes? Trump supporters will argue that DeVos’s appointment will enable the Trump administration to follow through on campaign promises, to extend parental choice in the school system. Of course, as with any political promise, the devil is in the detail. We will have to wait to see how DeVos’s changes will affect the education system.
Just posted: Betsy DeVos, Trump’s Big-Donor Education Secretary https://t.co/FFiRlrPPKW via @newyorker
— Jane Mayer (@JaneMayerNYer) November 24, 2016
By picking DeVos as education secretary Donald Trump has fanned the flames of an already polarized debate. Teachers unions, academics, and many democrats fear that the extension of voucher schemes will have a catastrophic effect on already struggling public schools. They argue that DeVos’ scheme diverts money from already stretched public schools to already wealthy private schools.
Trump and Devos supporters will argue that voucher schemes will allow children to achieve their potential, whilst taking the pressure off public schools.
By nominating Betsy Devos as Education Secretary, President-elect Trump may be trying to make good on campaign promises. However, many will see the appointment of DeVos as a far cry from his promise to “drain the swamp” of corrupt career politicians. When it comes to tax affairs it seems the DeVos family has as many skeletons in their closet as Trump himself.
The New Yorker reports that in 1982 “[Richard] DeVos and his Amway co-founder, Jay Van Andel, were charged with criminal tax fraud in Canada.”
Amway admitted the offenses and paid fines of $25 million. As a result, the criminal charges against DeVos and his partner were dropped. Despite the scandals, the DeVos family has continued to be a major political and lobbying force. In many ways, the DeVos family represents everything that Trump promised to weed out of politics. Trump promised an end to cronyism, nepotism, and opportunism, by the wealthy elite. By appointing Devos, and members of his own family, to his White House team, President-elect Trump is already proving that nothing much will change.
It may be Thanksgiving but we will have to wait to see if we should be giving thanks for Donald Trump’s appointment of Betsy DeVos this time next year.
[Featured Image by Carolyn Kaster/AP Images]
