Betsy DeVos Ethics Statement: Education Secretary Pick's Financial Holdings (Updated)

(Updated) U.S. education secretary nominee Betsy DeVos has released her ethics statement, including documents detailing assets to be divested, businesses she will have an interest in and other details of her vast financial holdings, Politico is reporting. DeVos, the western Michigan school-choice advocate tabbed by the new Trump administration to lead the Department of Education, was portrayed after confirmation hearings this week as either a reformer who will take on special interests or unqualified to lead the sprawling agency.

DeVos and her husband, Dick, heir to the family’s $5.5 billion Amway fortune, are among Michigan’s wealthiest families. School choice is Betsy DeVos bailiwick, and she has used the family fortune to support Republican politicians who support taxpayer funded vouchers to help parents pay for private school for their children. Because of their influence, Michigan's charter schools operate largely largely free of regulation.

In the disclosure, DeVos said she had resigned positions and has no financial interests in a dozen groups where she has a potential conflict of interest, including the Dick and Betsy DeVos Family Foundation, as well as several school-choice and education groups, including the Alliance for School Choice, which does business as the American Federation for Children Growth Fund.

In the Jan. 19 ethics statement, DeVos said she would resign her directorship with the family’s private investment and management fund, RDV Corporation and its subsidiaries, but would not divest her holdings. The entity’s financing deals include online charter schools, The Washington Post reported.

In all, DeVos said she would divest her assets in 102 funds, accounts or limited liability corporations; has resigned from positions or has no financial interests in another dozen; and has resigned from positions for eight, but retains a financial interest.

Among the limited liability corporations DeVos is stepping away from is the LMF WF Portfolio II LLC, which was among several loaning $147 million to Performant Financial Corp., which gets 23 percent of its annual revenue from Education Department contracts to go after delinquent student loans.

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Photo by Keith A. Almli via Wikimedia Commons