The African American Roots of Betsy DeVos's Education Platform

In recent weeks, pundits and scholars have bemoaned the privatization of public education that is likely to occur if Betsy DeVos is confirmed as Donald Trump’s Secretary of Education. Democracy Now!, for instance, billed DeVos as “Public (School) Enemy No. 1.” Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, in a statement described her as “the most ideological, anti-public education nominee put forward since President Carter created a Cabinet-level Department of Education.” At her confirmation hearing Tuesday evening, Democratic senators grilled her about her track record promoting private control of public education and demanded, to little avail, that she would commit to keeping public-school dollars in public schools.

To numerous critics, DeVos’s appointment threatens the integrity of public education that still remains.

DeVos is deeply committed to providing alternatives to public education through school choice, a theory of education reform that rests upon, vouchers and charter schools, particularly under Trump,  are part of the privatization movement that seeks to dismantle public education by turning it over to for-profit corporations.