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Thursday, September 26, 2019

Cory Booker’s Long and Profitable Friendship with Betsy DeVos, and Why It Ended | Diane Ravitch's blog

Cory Booker’s Long and Profitable Friendship with Betsy DeVos, and Why It Ended | Diane Ravitch's blog

Cory Booker’s Long and Profitable Friendship with Betsy DeVos, and Why It Ended


Cory Booker was recently interviewed by the Washington Post, and he was asked about his past support for vouchers and his friendship with Betsy DeVos. 
He insisted that he turned against vouchers in 2006, and he barely remembered any connection to DeVos. When someone asked if he had flown to Michigan in 2000 at the request of Dick and Betsy DeVos to support their voucher referendum, he at first denied it, then when shown a tape, he said he didn’t remember it.
He opposed DeVos’ nomination to be Secretary of Education in 2017.
DeVos’s allies are stunned by what they call his turnabout. They view Booker’s effort to distance himself from her and her agenda as a betrayal. 
Now that it is politically inconvenient, he has distanced himself from the issue and those who helped launch his political career,” said William E. Oberndorf, who was chairman of the American Education Reform Council when DeVos and Booker were on the board. “Cory once told me that his father used to say to him, ‘Never forget the girl who brought you to the dance.’ I can only CONTINUE READING: Cory Booker’s Long and Profitable Friendship with Betsy DeVos, and Why It Ended | Diane Ravitch's blog