Donald Trump's Education Secretary Pick Betsy DeVos of Michigan: 7 Things to Know

Updated: Michigan charter school advocate and Republican power broker Betsy DeVoshas been tapped by President-elect Donald J. Trump to serve as U.S. education secretary, Trump said Wednesday in a statement.

Trump said DeVos has been a national leader in the school reform movement for more than two decades and that she will help him fix systemic problems that are holding back America’s school children.

“Betsy DeVos is a brilliant and passionate education advocate,” Trump said. “Under her leadership we will reform the U.S. education system and break the bureaucracy that is holding our children back so that we can deliver world-class education and school choice to all families. I am pleased to nominate Betsy as Secretary of the Department of Education."

DeVos said she is honored to be asked by Tump to help reform education for America's youths.
“The status quo in education is not acceptable," she said, also in a statement. "Together, we can work to make transformational change that ensures every student in America has the opportunity to fulfill his or her highest potential.”

Here are seven things to know about DeVos:

School choice is her bailiwick. She serves on the board of directors of the Great Lakes Project and chairs the board of directors of the American Federation for Children, both of which are school choice and charter school advocates, and has been a strong advocate of some of Trump's policies to fix education in the United States, especially schools with high poverty rates in their student bodies.

DeVos’ children went to a private school. Beyond her advocacy work, DeVos doesn’t have direct experience with the public education system. Her own children attended private Christian schools, and she’s sure to be asked how she would handle the sprawling bureaucracy of Department of Education.

Under DeVos, the DOE could provide less oversight. Private companies run about 80 percent of Michigan’s charter schools, far more than in any other state, and they’re largely unfettered by state oversight and regulation under legislation championed by DeVos in 1993. When the Michigan Legislature was considering more oversight for some of Detroit’s charter schools, DeVos and her family made $1.45 million in campaign contributions — about $25,000 a day for seven weeks — and the measure was defeated.

DeVos and Trump may disagree on Common Core learning standards. Trump’s advisers have warned that DeVos has given speeches defending Common Core standards, which Trump opposes. DeVos is also a board member for the Foundation of Excellence in Education, the group founded by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush created to promote school choice and the Common Core.

DeVos is firmly entrenched in the political establishment. Trump and his supporters railed against the status quo during the campaign, but DeVos, 58, is one of Michigan’s political elite. She is a former Michigan Republican Party chairwoman, and her husband, Dick DeVos, is a former Republican governor candidate who lost to Democrat Jennifer Granholm in 2006.

DeVos is very wealthy. Dick DeVos is heir to the family’s $5.5 billion Amway fortune, according to Forbes' 2016 ranking of America’s richest people. DeVos and her family have been generous philanthropists — they reported more than $1.2 billion in lifetime giving. They also use their wealth to sway lawmakers on a host of social issues, from opposition to same-sex marriage to support for voucher plans.

DeVos could reach across lines. In a 2013 Philanthropy Roundtable interview, DeVos said education “should be non-partisan” and the only way to achieve reform is to “engage Democrats, to make it politically safe for them to do hat they know in their heart of hearts is the right thing.”

Photo by Keith A. Almli via Wikimedia Commons