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2016-11-24 Home Front: Politix

Betsy DeVos (sister of Erik Prince) picked as education secretary (Video)

[CNN] President-elect Donald Trump tapped Betsy DeVos, a top Republican donor and school choice activist, to head the Department of Education, the Trump transition team announced Wednesday.

Trump met with the billionaire donor and conservative activist this weekend at his golf club in New Jersey, where he hosted a slew of potential Cabinet appointees. Trump offered DeVos the position on Tuesday and she accepted the same day, a senior Trump transition official told CNN.

"Betsy DeVos is a brilliant and passionate education advocate," Trump said in a statement Wednesday. "Under her leadership we will reform the US education system and break the bureaucracy that is holding our children back so that we can deliver world-class education and school choice to all families."

But Trump is also already drawing fire from both sides of the political spectrum for his pick. The largest teacher's union in the country slammed DeVos within an hour of the announcement for her advocacy of charter schools and school voucher programs, while conservatives quickly pointed out DeVos' association with groups supporting the Common Core education standards, which Trump has vowed to nix. DeVos moved quickly on Wednesday to quell any uproar on the right over her association with pro-Common Core groups, saying, "I am not a supporter -- period."

DeVos chairs the American Federation for Children, a group that promotes charter school education, and also served on the board of the Foundation for Excellence in Education, a group led by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush -- one of Trump's GOP primary opponents -- which promoted both school choice and the Common Core education standards.

And so while Trump vowed to eliminate Common Core, his pick of DeVos has begun to scare conservative opponents of the standards.

DeVos insisted in the post on her website that she supports "high standards, strong accountability and local control."

Posted by Besoeker 2016-11-24 00:00|| || Front Page|| [10325 views ] Top

#1 The largest teacher's union in the country slammed DeVos within an hour of the announcement for her advocacy of charter schools and school voucher programs.

Charter schools and vouchers diminish teacher union influence. Glad the Common Core nonsense also got straightened out by Devos. Trump received some of his greatest applause at his rallys when he said he would get rid of Common Core--a further weakening of teacher's unions. There has been a mention of requiring the unions to collect their dues on their own rather than use school resources.

Posted by JohnQC 2016-11-24 10:10|| 2016-11-24 10:10|| Front Page Top

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