Picking Betsy DeVos in 2016 as the Secretary of Education was like letting an arsonist loose in a drought-ridden forest and giving her gasoline and matches to play with.

It was another terrible choice by President Trump and an indication that the privatization movement that already has a head start in North Carolina had a national champion.

The idea of a privileged billionaire “privatizer” leading the nation’s public schools was more than contradictory or antithetical; it was diametrically repugnant.

Simply look at her resume in public education:

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• Betsy DeVos has no degree in education meaning she is not even educated in how to educate.
• Betsy DeVos has no teaching experience. NONE, but she was the leading official for public schools in the nation.
• Betsy DeVos never attended a public school or state supported university. None of her children have either.
• Betsy DeVos’s monetary contributions to Christian-based schools and evangelical organizations has been conservatively estimated at well over $200 million.
• Betsy DeVos is totally anti-union and believes that teachers are paid too much.
• Betsy DeVos supports vouchers like no other.

That’s right. The top official for public schools hadno experience as a student, parent, teacher, or administrator of public schools, but she does have experience in funding privatization movements.

But as the spouse of the heir to the Amway fortune who had her own privileged childhood, Betsy DeVos does have great, ample experience in throwing money into causes that she feels would benefit her own ideology and personal interests.

In Jane Meyer’s book Dark Money, Betsy DeVos is quoted as saying the following,

That’s disturbing. She admitted in that quote that she expects favors in return for her “philanthropy.”

And here in the election of 2024 with the needed publicity surrounding the devastation of Project 2025, the fact that this is a possibility should be enough to ensure that any pro-public education advocate gets to the polls and votes.