With the recent inauguration of Donald Trump, Betsy DeVos has been selected by him to become the new secretary of education. Essentially, she would be a part of the presidential cabinet as well as be responsible for overseeing policies, programs and activities that would directly impact the Department of Education. Her formal hearing is on January 31st, but she has seen some widespread opposition from multiple sources. Vermont's Bernie Sanders, along with several others had the opportunity to question DeVos before her formal hearing. His office has received approximately 5,700 phone calls and about 800 letters about DeVos and their shared opposition against her.
Betsy DeVos is not new to the world of education. In fact she has been involved with the American Federation for Children, which is a pro-choice school advocacy group that is pushing for the privatization of public education by advocating for laws that would take public funds to fund private tuition. DeVos has also been responsible for creating dismal charter schools in Michigan, of which most have scored well below the state average in reading and math. But while many believe that having more options for students is beneficial, there is much needed substance that is lacking from many of these schools. Writer Stephen Henderson, from the Detroit Free Press published a lengthy article that displayed the current situation that DeVos and charter schools are in.
Henderson states that Detroit contains the largest network of charter schools in comparison to the rest of the country. However, based off of the test scores and the performance levels of these schools, it is safe to say that there is an obvious case of quantity over quality of education here. Parents are misconceived when it comes to the selection of schools in their area, the best performing schools do not do school choice, and so only students in those areas are benefiting from better schools.
On a much larger scale, her meager qualifications are not going to be of benefit to her if she takes the seat of Secretary of Education. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts had an opportunity to question DeVos on her qualifications. She said "As Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos would be in charge of running a $1 trillion student loan bank. She has no experience doing that." and "The financial futures of an entire generation of young people depends on your department getting that right." DeVos has no experience in managing a loan program, let alone a trillion dollar one, and she also has never had to use government programs to fund her education, or her children's. While it is still early to tell exactly what she is capable in office, it is important to note that the lack of experience can detrimental in the long run.
