I have a couple of local freinds who are teachers who were spouting the liberal talking points that she was “not qualified”
I reminded them of how often they spoke about what a mess the education system was, and that was by people who were “qualified”...
But do any Freepers know her background enough to explain why Trump picked her?
I am all for her, if Trump wants her there must be a good reason- and I think school choice is enough of a reason alone.
One of my kids who has absorbed all the propaganda challenged me last night about this nomination.
And, to be honest, I’m sure her status as a GOP donor has something to do with the pick. And, to be even more honest, I’m not sure about her “qualifications” to run an Executive Department.
But what I told my kid (who is a senior in HS) was, “Look, the public school system and especially the education bureaucrats need a kick in the ass. She was picked to deliver the kick. And that’s all I really need to know about her”.
DeVos is a religious conservative who has pushed for years to breach the wall between church and state on education, among other issues.* (The Washington Post reports that Betsy DeVos has been an elder at Mars Hill, in Grand Rapids.) Betsy, who served as the chairwoman of the Michigan Republican Party in the late nineties and again in the early aughts, spent more than two million dollars of the family’s money on a failed school-vouchers referendum in 2000, which would have allowed Michigan residents to use public funds to pay for tuition at religious schools. The family then spent thirty-five million dollars, in 2006, on Dick DeVos’s unsuccessful campaign to unseat Jennifer Granholm, then the Democratic governor of the state. After that campaign, the DeVos family doubled down on political contributions and support for conservative Christian causes. Members of the family, including Betsy and Dick DeVos, have spent heavily in opposition to same-sex-marriage laws in several states. According to the Michigan L.G.B.T. publication PrideSource.com, DeVos and her husband led the successful campaign to pass an anti-gay-marriage ballot referendum in the state in 2004, contributing more than two hundred thousand dollars to the effort. Dick DeVos reportedly gave a hundred thousand dollars, in 2008, to an amendment that banned same-sex marriage in Florida. That year, Elsa Prince Broekhuizen, Betsy DeVos’s mother, was a major contributor to the effort to pass Proposition 8, which made same-sex marriage illegal in California.
Trump may have run against big money in politics, but his choice for Education Secretary has made no apologies about her family’s political spending. Betsy DeVos has been a major financial backer of legal efforts to overturn campaign-spending limits. In 1997, she brashly explained her opposition to campaign-finance-reform measures that were aimed at cleaning up so-called “soft money,” a predecessor to today’s unlimited “dark money” election spending. “My family is the biggest contributor of soft money to the Republican National Committee,” she wrote in the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call. “I have decided to stop taking offense,” she wrote, “at the suggestion that we are buying influence. Now I simply concede the point. They are right. We do expect something in return. We expect to foster a conservative governing philosophy consisting of limited government and respect for traditional American virtues. We expect a return on our investment.”
http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/betsy-devos-trumps-big-donor-education-secretary
DeVos is a member of the Republican Party known for her advocacy of school choice, voucher programs, and ties to the Reformed Christian community. She was Republican National Committeewoman for Michigan from 1992 to 1997 and served as chairwoman of the Michigan Republican Party from 1996 to 2000, with reelection to the post in 2003. DeVos has been an advocate of the Detroit charter school system and she is a member of the board of the Foundation for Excellence in Education. She has served as chairwoman of the board of Alliance for School Choice and Acton Institute and heads the All Children Matter PAC.
In essence, she doesn't kow tow to the public school unions and wants parents to be in charge of their childrens' education.