Betsy DeVos
Betsy DeVos is a prominent American politician and philanthropist best known for her role as the U.S. Secretary of Education under President Donald J. Trump. Born on January 8, 1958, in Holland, Michigan, she comes from a wealthy family with deep ties to conservative activism and Republican politics. DeVos has been an advocate for school choice, strongly promoting alternatives to public education such as school vouchers and charter schools, and has been critical of the public education system, which she describes as a monopoly.
Her nomination as Secretary of Education faced significant scrutiny during a controversial Senate confirmation process, ultimately requiring a tie-breaking vote from Vice President Mike Pence to secure her position. Throughout her tenure, DeVos pushed for policies that encouraged competition within the education sector, while also overseeing staff reductions and changes to federal education regulations, including those related to student loans and Title IX protections.
DeVos's background includes a strong influence from the Christian Reformed Church, and her family has been a substantial financial supporter of conservative causes. Following her resignation in early January 2021, she expressed a desire for the Department of Education to be abolished, highlighting her belief in limited government involvement in education.
Betsy DeVos
- Born: January 8, 1958
- Place of Birth: Holland, Michigan
Politician, philanthropist
Place of birth: Holland, Michigan
Education: Calvin College
Significance: Betsy DeVos was the US secretary of education in the administration of President Donald J. Trump. A conservative school-choice activist and major Republican donor, she faced a controversial Senate hearing before being confirmed with a tie-breaking vote from Vice President Mike Pence.
Background
Elisabeth “Betsy” DeVos was born Elisabeth Dee Prince in Holland, Michigan, on January 8, 1958, one of four children born to Elsa Zwiep Prince and Edgar D. Prince. Her father was an engineer and business leader who rose to wealth and prominence by pioneering the original equipment automobile parts industry; his company, Prince Corporation, was sold to Johnson Controls for more than $1 billion after his death in 1995.
The Christian Reformed Church (CRC) was a formative influence on DeVos from an early age; among its teachings, the American offshoot of Dutch Calvinism emphasizes that education is the responsibility of the family and community rather than the government. In her teen years, DeVos attended Holland Christian High School, founded by members of the CRC. She then went to Grand Rapids, Michigan–based Calvin College, which is also affiliated with the CRC.
Betsy DeVos’s political involvement began when she volunteered for Republican president Gerald R. Ford in 1976. She began to take an active role in GOP politics after her 1979 marriage to billionaire Richard Marvin “Dick” DeVos Jr., whose father founded the Amway multilevel-marketing firm. The marriage brought together two prominent and wealthy West Michigan Dutch families. During the 1980s and 1990s, Betsy DeVos served as a local precinct delegate, represented Michigan on the Republican National Committee between 1992 and 1998, and chaired the Michigan Republican Party between 1996 and 2005. Her husband was also active in the Michigan Republican Party and launched an unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign in 2006.
Activism and Politics
The vast wealth of the DeVos family has helped bankroll substantial philanthropy in Michigan and beyond, as well as political funds for GOP candidates and activism on behalf of conservative causes. For seventeen years, DeVos was listed on tax documents as vice president of the Prince Foundation, which bore her parents’ name and made contributions to Christian and right-wing groups such as the Family Research Council and Focus on the Family. During her 2017 confirmation hearing, however, DeVos said that the listing was a clerical error, however, and she denied that she held a leadership role at the foundation. Between 2000 and 2014, the Dick & Betsy DeVos Family Foundation donated more than $100 million to Christian, conservative, and free-market education causes, as well as to health-care organizations and arts groups, such as the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. DeVos has also served in various official capacities at the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty, a conservative think tank funded in part by DeVos and her family.
Education has long been one of DeVos’s chief causes. She has been a vocal critic of the US public education system, saying that it is a monopoly that needs an element of competition to improve. As such, she has been a strong supporter of school vouchers and Christian private schools. She has said that taxpayer money and philanthropic contributions are insufficient to fix the problems with the system, and desires a wholesale change in how schooling is approached. It is not coincidental that her state of Michigan was a pioneer in charter schools and is among the states where they are most prominent.
Early in the 2016 election, DeVos was not a supporter of Donald Trump and told at least one newspaper that he was not representative of the Republican Party. Nonetheless, she accepted when he selected her to be education secretary, saying she welcomed the chance to change the status quo. Her nomination was hailed by school choice supporters and religious conservatives, but greeted by opposition from teachers’ unions and civil liberties groups who questioned her ideology and qualifications.
Controversy and partisanship marked DeVos’s Senate confirmation hearing. There were questions about her significant GOP fundraising and disparaging comments about the public education system. Democratic senators asked DeVos a series of questions about existing laws or educational concepts—such as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), equal accountability for schools that receive federal funding, gun-free zones around schools, the difference between measuring proficiency and growth—that she seemed either unable or unwilling to answer.
As expected, DeVos received no Democratic votes, but she was also the only Trump nominee to receive two ‘no’ votes from Republicans: Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. Both expressed serious reservations about her lack of support for public education, each noting that their rural states would be ill-equipped to sustain experimental charter schools. Both independent senators, Angus King of Maine and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, also voted against her. This left the Senate deadlocked at 50–50, requiring Vice President Mike Pence to cast the deciding vote in his capacity as president of the senate, marking the first time that such a tiebreaker has ever been needed for a cabinet nominee.
As education secretary, DeVos continued to tout school choice, called for more state choice in standardized testing, and encouraged girls to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math. She has also made staff reductions at the Department of Education; loosened federal oversight of education funding; delayed the Equity in IDEA rule that regulates the identification of students who are eligible for special education programs; revoked guidance pertaining to student discipline and the disproportionate suspensions and expulsions of students of color and/or with disabilities; delayed and revised the process that allows student loan borrowers to seek loan forgiveness if their educational institution defrauds them; weakened Title IX of the Education Amendment Act of 1972, which prohibits federal funding of schools that discriminate on the basis of sex. She also was part of the Trump administration's efforts to challenge affirmative action through investigations of race-based admissions policies at colleges and universities. In 2020, she issued final regulations concerning sexual misconduct at schools and colleges. Devos's regulations strengthened due-process protections for students accused of sexual misconduct, established dating violence as a category of sexual misconduct, and mandated supportive measures for alleged assault victims. On January 7, 2021, the day after a mob of Trump supporters violently attacked the US Capitol, DeVos issued her official resignation.
In 2022, she announced her opinion that the Department of Education should be abolished. She doubled down on this statement in 2024, saying she would serve in a second Trump administration only if she could phase out the department. She said that she had tried to do so through the budgetary process.
Impact
In a Trump cabinet notable for its unconventional nominees, many of whom hold philosophies that are arguably opposed to the missions of the departments they have been charged to lead, DeVos stands out for her outspoken views on government’s role in education and her lack of firsthand knowledge of the nation’s public education system. She is the first education secretary in US history, for instance, not to have attended public schools or to have sent her children there. Many, including Senator Sanders, have argued her past campaign donations were a major factor in her nomination. DeVos’s confirmation process was extremely controversial, with organized opposition nationwide, culminating in the closest-ever vote for a US cabinet secretary; it was also the first time that the vice president has cast a tie-breaking vote as president of the Senate to confirm a cabinet nominee.
Personal Life
DeVos and her husband have four grown children: Richard III “Rick,” Elisabeth “Elissa,” Andrea, and Ryan. DeVos’s brother, Erik Prince, is the former Navy SEAL who founded Blackwater Worldwide (now Academi), a controversial private military force and security contractor.
Bibliography
Elving, Ron. “Pence Becomes First VP to Break Senate Tie over Cabinet Nomination.” NPR, 7 Feb. 2017, www.npr.org/2017/02/07/513836576/pence-becomes-first-vp-to-break-senate-tie-over-cabinet-nomination. Accessed 19 Apr. 2023.
Green, Erica L. “DeVos’s Rules Bolster Rights of Students Accused of Sexual Misconduct.” The New York Times, 22 Sept. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/05/06/us/politics/campus-sexual-misconduct-betsy-devos.html. Accessed 19 Apr. 2023.
Nzanga, Merdie. "Ex-Education Secretary Betsy DeVos says the Department of Education 'should not exist'." USA Today, 19 July 2022, www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/07/18/betsy-devos-tampa-moms-liberty-department-education/10084634002/. Accessed 19 Apr. 2023.
Pulliam Bailey, Sarah. “Betsy DeVos, Trump’s Education Pick, Is a Billionaire with Deep Ties to the Christian Reformed Community.” The Washington Post, 23 Nov. 2016, www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2016/11/23/betsy-devos-trumps-education-pick-is-a-billionaire-philanthropist-with-deep-ties-to-the-reformed-christian-community. Accessed 19 Apr. 2023.
Rashid, Hafiz. "Betsy DeVos Says She'd Work for Trump Again—on One Condition." The New Republic, 12 Aug. 2024, newrepublic.com/post/184789/betsy-devos-work-Trump-again-one-condition-education-department. Accessed 2 Oct. 2024.
Rizga, Kristina. “Betsy DeVos Wants to Use America’s Schools to Build ‘God’s Kingdom.’” Mother Jones, Mar.–Apr. 2017, www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/01/betsy-devos-christian-schools-vouchers-charter-education-secretary. Accessed 19 Apr. 2023.
Strauss, Valerie. “Sanders to DeVos: Would You Be Trump’s Education Nominee If You Weren’t a Billionaire?” The Washington Post, 18 Jan. 2017, www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2017/01/18/sanders-to-devos-would-you-be-trumps-education-nominee-if-you-werent-a-billionaire. Accessed 19 Apr. 2023.
Strauss, Valerie. “Sen. Franken: No Democrat Will Vote for Betsy DeVos as Education Secretary—and We’re Seeking Republicans to Oppose Her.” The Washington Post, 27 Jan. 2017, www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2017/01/27/sen-franken-no-democrat-will-vote-for-betsy-devos-as-education-secretary-and-were-seeking-republicans-to-oppose-her. Accessed 19 Apr. 2023.
Wang, Amy X., and Heather Timmons. “What Makes Trump’s Pick of Betsy DeVos as Education Secretary So Controversial.” Quartz, 17 Jan. 2017, qz.com/887190/what-american-parents-with-kids-in-public-school-need-to-know-about-betsy-devos-trumps-pick-for-education-secretary. Accessed 19 Apr. 2023.