DeVos Hearing Today: Why the Senate Should Not Confirm Betsy DeVos as Education Secretary
Late this afternoon the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee will hold the confirmation hearing on President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of Betsy DeVos as U.S. Secretary of Education.
This blog has extensively explored Betsy DeVos’s commitment to breaking the bond between government and education through the expansion of vouchers and unregulated charter schools. As she declared in a speech last year, “Government really sucks.” But there are additional reasons to be very concerned about Betsy DeVos’ record.
A brief from People for the American Way summarizes the national organizations which Betsy DeVos has founded or on whose boards of directors she served until she resigned from those positions when she was nominated as Education Secretary: “Betsy DeVos is… the co-founder and current chair of the boards at the anti-teachers union state advocacy groups Alliance for School Choice and American Federation for Children (AFC) and a close friend of teachers union opponent Campbell Brown, who also serves on AFC’s board. DeVos also sits on the board of the Foundation for Excellence in Education (Jeb Bush’s foundation). Through the DeVos Family Foundation, the DeVoses have given millions to anti-teachers union and pro-privatization education groups; recent tax filings show donations to the Alliance for School Choice, the American Enterprise Institute, the Black Alliance for Educational Options, the Foundation for Excellence in Education, the Heritage Foundation, the Hispanic Council for Reform and Educational Options, and the Institute for Justice. The foundation is listed as a supporter of Campbell Brown’s The 74 website. Betsy DeVos’s American Federation for Children further connects the DeVos family to right-wing corporate reform groups; it is listed as an education partner of the right-wing-fueled National School Choice Week Campaign…. School Choice Week DeVos Hearing Today: Why the Senate Should Not Confirm Betsy DeVos as Education Secretary | janresseger:
