Mother Crusader: Betsy DeVos: Conflict of Interest Concerns Arise on Future Secretary's Twitter Account

Mother Crusader: Betsy DeVos: Conflict of Interest Concerns Arise on Future Secretary's Twitter Account:

Betsy DeVos: Conflict of Interest Concerns Arise on Future Secretary's Twitter Account

So it's done.

Trump has appointed billionaire school choice fetishist Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education.

"Betsy DeVos is a brilliant and passionate education advocate,” Trump said in a statement. “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."

When I first heard the news I took to Twitter to check out her account. Here's the first thing I noticed. 

 Follow

Betsy DeVos @BetsyDeVos

I am honored to work with the President-elect on his vision to make American education great again. The status quo in ed is not acceptable.

10:14 AM - 23 Nov 2016

 
•  3,9443,944 Retweets
 
•  7,1217,121 likes

Let's play a little game for a moment to try and lighten the mood. Did you catch the missing word in that tweet? The missing word is public. Our new Secretary of Education can't bring herself to utter the word public in the same sentence as education while announcing that she will soon oversee the education of 50 million American students in public schools.

Here's what I noticed next. Her header photo.

At  first glance this just looks like a lovely photo of DeVos in conversation with a student. But huh, isn't it a little odd that there is a carton in front of each of them? And not just any carton, a carton of water. That's not something you see everyday.

It looks like a product placement, doesn't it? But nah, she's savvy enough to keep any products her family business may be associated with far away from the Twitter account where she's tweeting about her appointment, right? She can't be involved in that company, that would look like a conflict of interest! 

So let's just get on with our story.

DeVos is from Michigan. Betsy and her husband, Dick, have funded countless Republican candidates in Michigan, going back to the 1990s.

Nowhere has the family made its presence felt as it has in Michigan, where it has given more than $44 million to the state party, GOP legislative committees, and Republican candidates since 1997. "It's been a generational commitment," Anuzis notes. "I can't start to even think of who would've filled the void without the DeVoses there."

Governor Rick Snyder has been the recipient of the DeVos family's largesse.

Employees of Blue Cross/Blue Shield are the biggest funding source for the governor so far, having donated $112,131. Fifteen members of the DeVos family have contributed $85,600. They are followed by employees of CMS Energy, $82,975, and DTE Energy, $75,800.

The DeVos family uses their money and influence for any number of vile endeavors; vouchers, right-to-work laws, anti-gay marriage efforts, etc. But school choice is Betsy Devos' bread and butter.

But they are perhaps most ardent about their support for Mother Crusader: Betsy DeVos: Conflict of Interest Concerns Arise on Future Secretary's Twitter Account: