Appointing Betsy DeVos Secretary of Education is the literal opposite of "draining the swamp", yet that did nothing to stop president-elect Trump from doing so. This raises some questions: Who exactly is Betsy DeVos? What makes her qualified to be Secretary of Education? How many billions of dollars is she worth?

Betsy DeVos is a conservative from Michigan who is known for being pro school choice and pro-voucher system. While this may seem harmless at face value--after all who doesn't like choices and spending other people's money?--the reality is that the systems proposed by DeVos fundamentally undermine the American public education system. Why would she want to do this? Considering neither she nor her children have ever attended a public school, she doesn't exactly have much in the way of motivation to promote and improve the public school. DeVos favors private schools along with schools based on Christianity. While having these schools is all fine and well, attempting to replace all public schools with them through the voucher system is not.

If Betsy DeVos has never been to public school, and her children have never been to public school, you may be asking yourself--well has she at least administered or worked in a public school? Answer: No. The entirety of DeVos' qualifications lies in her history of supporting the charter school movement and the voucher system. DeVos has spent her life advocating for the funneling of money into private and religious schools, and out of public schools.

In regards to the third remaining question, how many billions of dollars is she worth, the answer is 5.1 billion dollars. This net worth shared with her husband has been used to fuel Republican campaigns for decades and to lobby against campaign finance reform--as well as to lobby against same-sex marriage and other issues. Instead of draining the swamp, Trump picked DeVos largely based on her family's donations and financial influence, and partially because of her conservative leaning and desire to privatize the American public education system. Her qualifications and credentials never even factored into the equation; dollar signs paved the way.