Teachers have long worried the purpose of the school choice movement was the dismantling of public education. Their fears are growing now as Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the U.S. Department of Education is a longtime critic of public schools.
Billionaire and mega Republican donor Betsy DeVos has dedicated her life and her family’s considerable fortune — they are heirs to the Amway fortune — to creating escape routes out of public schools. She is not an educator and has not taught, although she will now lead an agency established to assist states in improving their schools.
Until now, DeVos has focused on fleeing schools rather than fixing them. “Traditional public schools are not succeeding,” she has said. “In fact, let’s be clear, in many cases, they are failing. That’s helped people become more open to what were once considered really radical reforms — reforms like vouchers, tax credits, and education savings accounts.”
In her home state of Michigan, DeVos has fought efforts to better regulate charter schools.
To read more, go to the AJC Get Schooled blog.
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