54
oralltheyearssince Jimmy Carter
pickedShirleyHufstedler in 1979 to
bethefirstholderof the title, it’s
beena traditionforthe U.S. edu-
cation secretary
to address the
annual gathering
ofthehundredsofjournalists cov-
eringtheirdepartment. Two years
ago,BetsyDeVos,who’d recently
beenconfirmedasPresident Donald
Trump’s education secretary,
turneddownaninvitation from
theEducationWriters Association.
The next year she did so again, raising
the possibility that she might be the first
person with the job to snub the orga-
nization altogether in almost 40 years.
So the association’s members were
excited when DeVos agreed to appear
this year. What would their reluctant
keynote speaker say? The tables in the
ballroom on Baltimore’s inner harbor
quickly filled with journalists. The slim
61-year-old walked onstage wearing a
light blue pantsuit, sparkling gold heels,
and a forced smile. “The simple truth is,”
DeVos said, sighing, “I never imagined
I’d be a focus of your coverage. I don’t
enjoy the publicity that comes with my
position.” She gave her audience a plain-
tive look. “I am an introvert,” she said,
placingherhandonherheart.Thenshe
becamedefiant:“Andasmuchasmany
inthemediausemynameasclickbait
ortrytomakeit allaboutme,it’snot.”
Onceshewasfinished,DeVostooka
seat onstage, leaning back in her chair as
if she wished she could disappear rather
than take questions from Erica Green, a
New York Times education reporter. But
Green was gracious, as were most of the
audience members who asked ques-
tions. An under-
performingvoucher programinLouisiana?She
didn’tthinkmuchofit either.A proposal
ina Tennesseeeducationbilltargeting
undocumentedstudents?Shewaspretty
sureit didn’twindupinthefinalversion,
sowhatwastheretosay?
There’ssomethingmildlydisingenu-
ousaboutDeVos’scontentionthatshe’s
beenthesubjectofunduescrutiny.She
cametoWashingtonin 2017 toserve
Trump,whohadagreedtopay$25mil-
lionthepreviouswintertosettleclaims
thathisnamesakefor-profituniversity
bilkedstudents.Fordecades,DeVoshas
promotedwhatshereferstoas“school
choice,”arguingthatparentsshouldbe
abletodecidewhichschooltheirchil-
drenattend—withthegovernmentpro-
vidingsubsidiesintheformofvouchers
if theyselecta privateone.Smallwon-
dershehasencounteredoppositionnot
justfromDemocratsandtheirteach-
ers’unionallies,butalsoRepublicans
inruralstateswheretraditionalpublic
schoolsareoftenthesoleoption.
DeVoshasn’tbeenthebestadvocate
for her policies, either. She’s made some
spectacular gaffes since entering public
life, starting with her difficult confirma-
tion hearing, in which she seemed per-
plexed about federal education law. She
hadn’t been in office for a year before
a Huffington Post/YouGov poll showed
more Americans had a “strongly unfa-
vorable” opinion of her than of any other
Trump administration cabinet member
at the time. She’s also had to weather
what former White House aides and
people close to Trump now describe
as the president’s indifference. Several
say they’ve never heard him mention
her name, though that might not be the
worst thing in the Trump White House.
Elizabeth Hill, DeVos’s spokeswoman,
says the secretary can get a meeting with
Trump anytime she wants.
The embarrassments have contin-
ued. In March she attracted bipartisan
irewhen she publicly advocated elimi-
nating funding for the Special Olympics,
onlyto backtrack and say that she’d
always opposed the cut after Trump
casually overruled her. Some
in the school reform movement
havehad enough of the drama at thedepartment. Michael Petrilli, president
of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a
conservative education think tank, says
regretfully that DeVos should step down
because she’s damaging her own cause:
“She’s so unpopular that she’s making
it harder for education reformers at the
state and local level.”
Yet DeVos has been surprisingly effec-
tive on one front. In early May she was
feted by the conservative Manhattan
Institute in New York, where she reeled
off a list of the Obama-era initiatives
she’d overturned or was in the process of
reversingconcerningcivilrightsandstu-
dentprotections.It wasalmostasif she
weredisplayinga collectionoftrophies.
“We’re breaking the stranglehold
Washington has on America’s students,
teachers, and schools, starting with all
the social engineering from the previous
administration,” she boasted. Outside,
protesters all but called for her head.
Insidethemarble-columnedbanquet
hall,listenersrepeatedlyinterrupted
herwithapplause.Much has been written about DeVos’s
privileged background: how she grew up
in a tightly knit Dutch-American enclave
inwesternMichiganandattendedreli-
gious schools anda nearby college
namedafterJohnCalvin,the16thcen-
tury theologian who believed in predes-
tination; how her father, Edgar Prince,
became wealthy by inventing the lighted
automobilesunvisor;howshemarried
DickDeVos,sonofthelatebillionaire
co-founderoftheAmwaydirect-selling
empire; and how together they’ve used
their riches to advance conservative edu-
cational causes in Michigan.
Somewhat less has been written
about the results of such policies in her
home state. In a study of federal data
from 2003 to 2015, Brian Jacob, a pro-
fessor of economics and public policy at
the University of Michigan, found that
the state’s fourth and fifth graders had
lower growth rates in math and reading
scores than any of their peers around
the country. He says many things could
have contributed to this, including pov-
erty, but DeVos’s initiatives, such as pro-
moting a lightly regulated charter sectorDeVos’s pro-
“school choice” stance
includes subsidies for
parents who opt for
private schools
DEVOS: BILL CLARK/AP PHOTO. NUMBERS: GETTY IMAGES. DATA: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, AMERICAN FEDERATION FOR CHILDREN, NATIONAL CENTER FOR EDUCATION STATISTICS, NATIONAL ALLIANCE FOR PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOLS, FEDERAL RESERVE, MORNING CONSULT *BUDGET REQUESTS WERE MADE IN 2015 AND 2018 **THIS DATA WAS MEASURED FROM FEBRUARY 2017 TO MAY 2018