Betsy DeVos established the dubious distinction of becoming the first cabinet member in history whose confirmation required the vice president to cast a tie-breaking vote.
Why such resistance to DeVos for education secretary?
She had no experience working in education.
She hoped to reform education so wealthy children’s private education was funded by tax money allocated for public education.
In other words, she wanted taxes to fund charter school education — segregation with benefits.
DeVos’s confirmation hearings were a disaster.
DeVos was asked about whether guns should be allowed in schools.
She responded that there are guns in schools in Wyoming to protect administrators, teachers, and students “from grizzly bears.”
This seemed an odd answer given that there was no record of grizzly bears being involved in a school shooting.
It’s possible this was happened on a regular basis, but the liberal media just wasn’t reporting it to protect the National Rifle Association.
Maybe not.
At any rate, DeVos contributed more to Twitter and comedy with her statement about grizzly bears that she would contribute during her four years as a cabinet member in the Trump administration.
Rolling Stone published an article that summarized a number of DeVos-related gags on late-night comedy programs including one of someone in a bear suit harassing students.
Stephen Colbert, host of The Late Show, opened his program with a video that Rolling Stone said showed “security footage scenes of a big bear terrorizing students at an elementary school, firing spitballs, stuffing kids in lockers, smoking in the bathroom and dishing out atomic wedgies.”
Jim Kimmel, host of Jimmy Kimmel Live, showed footage of laughing senators who were joined by a man-in-a-bear suit yukking it up with before firing a few shots into the Capitol ceiling.
“Betsy DeVos would have made a great Secretary of Education in 1783 when grizzly bears were a problem,” Kimmel said.
James Corden of The Late, Late Show with James Corden said that if schools were really that concerned with protecting their students against bears they could … “lock the doors.”
Corden then added, “She knows the right to bear arms isn’t about actual bears, right?”
And then there was the less-publicized exchange when DeVos said that the federal Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA) was “a matter best left to the states.”
Sen. Maggie Hassan, a Democrat from New Hampshire who has a disabled son, responded to DeVos’ statement by saying: “Do you stand by your statement a few minutes ago that it should be up to the states whether to follow it?”
DeVos: “Federal law must be followed where federal dollars are in play.”
Hassan: “So were you unaware what I just asked you about the IDEA that it was a federal law?”
DeVos: “I may have confused it.”
https://www.freep.com/story/news/education/2017/01/18/betsy-devos-confirmation-hearing/96711032/
Maybe.
Or maybe it was the Trump Administration that became confused by nominating someone to be Secretary of Education who had never worked as an administrator, teacher, or staff member in a school; she had never served on a school board for public schools; nor had she or any of her children attended a public school.
DeVos wasn’t just indifferent to public schools; she was hostile to it, vowing to remove tens of billions of dollars from public schools to give to charter schools.
Devos is married to Dick DeVos, the chairman of Amway.
It is one of the wealthiest families in America.
Her brother is Erik Prince, founder of Blackwater, a private military conductor that created a private army to complement our military that didn’t have to obey those pesky rules of war that our soldiers must obey – such as not shooting unarmed citizens.
SEE NICHOLAS SLATTEN, PAUL SLOUGH, EVAN LIBERTY, DUSTIN HEARD.
As it turned out, DeVos failed to dismantle public education.
Politico said that DeVos’ tenure was marked by deregulation, school choice advocacy and relentless criticism of traditional public schools.”
DeVos’s damage could be overturned by a Democratic president.
“I think, within a year, we’re going to look back, and there’s not going to be much of a mark,” says Michael Petrilli, head of the conservative-leaning Thomas B. Fordham Institute, an education think tank, told NPR in November 2020.
https://www.npr.org/2020/11/19/936225974/the-legacy-of-education-secretary-betsy-devos
DeVos, in fact, did very little, relatively nothing, which makes her one of the most productive members of the Trump Administration.
But in the winding days of the Trump Administration, Trump refused to acknowledge his loss in the presidential election and told lie after lie after lie about election fraud and coaxed his supporters to go to the Capitol, resulting in the violent insurrection of January 6.
It was at this moment that Trump’s sycophants in Congress defended him and lied about the day’s violence.
DeVos resigned from the cabinet in protest of the president’s actions.
