Bloomberg Businessweek - USA (2019-07-22)

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with a large number of schools run by for-profit
companies, haven’t helped. “Personally, I think
there is evidence that the very deregulated
form of private school involvement hasn’t been
good for education in Michigan,” Jacob says.
Hill responds that another study shows char-
ters in Michigan outperforming traditional pub-
lic schools, and that the state is lagging because
it hasn’t fully embraced her boss’s policies.
Undaunted by Michigan’s shortcomings—
or, some would say, oblivious to them—
DeVos co-founded the American Federation
for Children in 2009, a dark-money-enabled
advocacy group that she chaired until 2016.
During this time, says John Schilling, the fed-
eration’s president, she worked with sympa-
thetic former Republican governors, including
Indiana’s Mike Pence, to double the number
of states with private school choice programs.
According to the federation, 26 states and the
District of Columbia and Puerto Rico now offer
some form of private school tuition supports,
such as vouchers and tax credits.
Given her conservative allegiances and oft-
stated distrust of government, DeVos might
seem like someone who would have gravi-
tated in 2016 to Republican presidential can-
didate Trump, who the previous year devoted
a chapter in his book Crippled America:
How to Make America Great Again to scorn-
ing the Department of Education. But at the
Republican National Convention that year, she
expressed qualms about what she described
asTrump’s“erraticisms.”“Alotofthethings
he’ssaidaretroubling,”shetoldBloomberg
Businessweekatthetime,“andI don’tthink
reflectiveofthekindofleadershipandtem-
peramentit takestobepresident.”
YetafterTrump’svictory,DeVosalliessuch
as Vice President-elect Pence promoted her
as a candidate for education secretary. In late
November he nominated her for the job, call-
ing her “brilliant.” She would have little power
over K-12: The federal government provides
only 7% of the $818 billion spent annually for
U.S. elementary and secondary education. But
the position gives DeVos a national pulpit from
which to evangelize about school choice. And
it casts a longer shadow over higher educa-
tion, overseeing the $1.4 trillion federal student
loan program. “When the opportunity arose,
I couldn’t say no,” she said earlier this year
at a meeting of the Conference for Christian
Colleges & Universities in Washington, D.C.
Having never served in government as an

elected official, or an appointed one for that

matter, DeVos struggled in her new role. Her

January 2017 confirmation hearing was a

circus-like proceeding, with Democratic sen-

ators pouncing on her mistakes and raising

questions about her fitness for the job. (She

declined to comment for this story.) In private,

her new employees found her more knowl-

edgeable than they’d expected, if somewhat

blinkered in her perspective. “She really does

care about helping kids in this nation,” says

a former high-level department official, who

spoke on condition of anonymity because she

was no longer there. “She just has some very

specific ideas about how to accomplish that.”

In public, though, DeVos kept flounder-

ing. Protesters greeted her when she visited

schools, starting with her first trip to a pub-

lic one in February 2017. Demonstrators sur-

rounded her SUV and tried to keep her from

entering Jefferson Middle School Academy in

Washington, D.C., chanting “Go home!” and

“Shame, shame, shame!” Once inside, she

impressed teachers. “It seemed like she was for

public education,” says Ashley Cobb, an eighth

grade math teacher and the local union rep.

The next day, though, DeVos obliterated

whatever goodwill she’d earned by telling

conservative columnist Cal Thomas that the

school’s teachers had been lulled into passivity

bythegovernment’s“top-down”approachto

educationpolicy:“They’rewaitingtobetold

whattheyhavetodo,andthat’snotgoin to

bringsuccesstoanindividualchild.”Cobb

saysDeVos’sremarksinfuriatedinstructors,

many of whom have master’s degrees. “We

had a community meeting to let the students

know that was unacceptable,” she says. “No

one is going to come into our house and bad-

mouth us, especially when it’s inaccurate.”

The next month, DeVos met with LGBT lead-

ers concerned about her decision to withdraw

an Obama administration letter to school dis-

tricts advising them to let transgender students

use the bathroom conforming to their gender

identity. Mara Keisling, executive director of

the National Center for Transgender Equality,

was there with several parents of transgender

students. She says one of them argued that

she should have a choice in how her child was

treated at school. “The secretary just lit up and

said, ‘Well, that reminds me, when my choice

proposals come out, I hope that’s something

we can all get together on and you can sup-

port me on,’ ” Keisling recalls. “It was actually

Bloomberg Businessweek July 22, 2019

Changes in the president’s

budget requests in the

Department of Education,

2016-19*

Changesinothereducational

metrics,2015-18

Educationforthedisadvantaged

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Schoolimprovementprograms

Safe schools and

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Numberofcharterschools

Averagetotalcostof

four-yearinstitutions

8

Public support for “school choice”

PublicopinionofDeVosas“very

unfavorable”**

DeV “

Totalstudentdebt