WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump has selected a charter school advocate and GOP donor from Michigan to be education secretary.

Betsy DeVos becomes the second woman chosen to fill a spot in Trump's Cabinet. Earlier Wednesday, Trump named South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations earlier in the day.

[INTERACTIVE: Donald Trump timeline + full list of appointments so far]

DeVos heads the advocacy group American Federation for Children. She's known for supporting charter schools and vouchers.

Before Trump's announcement, some conservatives were complaining about DeVos' ties to the political establishment. They also warned that she previously supported Common Core standards that Trump railed against during the campaign.

The 58-year-old DeVos is a former Michigan Republican Party chairwoman. Her husband, Dick, is an heir to the Amway fortune and a former company president.</s>WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - President-elect Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he intends to nominate charter school advocate and Republican mega-donor Betsy DeVos as Education Secretary.



In a statement announcing his decision, Trump described DeVos as a 'brilliant and passionate education advocate.'



'Under her leadership we will reform the U.S. 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,' Trump said.



DeVos, who currently heads the American Federation for Children, said she is honored to work with Trump on his vision to make American education great again.



'The status quo in education is not acceptable,' DeVos said. 'Together, we can work to make transformational change that ensures every student in America has the opportunity to fulfill his or her highest potential.'



DeVos is the second woman Trump has picked for his cabinet after announcing his intent to nominate South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations earlier in the day.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX</s>President-elect Donald Trump calls out to the media as he and Betsy DeVos pose for photographs at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster clubhouse in Bedminster, N.J., Saturday, Nov. 19, 2016. (Photo: Carolyn Kaster / AP)

Lansing — President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday said he intends to appoint west Michigan GOP mega donor and philanthropist Betsy DeVos to be his education secretary, putting an ardent supporter of school choice in charge of the nation’s education policy.

DeVos, 58, is seen as a national leader in the school choice movement, which she has called an attempt to “empower” parents to find good schools for their children, whether they be traditional public schools in other neighborhoods, charter schools, virtual schools or private institutions.

“Betsy DeVos is a brilliant and passionate education advocate,” Trump said Wednesday in a statement. “Under her leadership, we will reform the U.S. 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.”

Trump’s appointment of DeVos is subject to confirmation by the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate.

On Tuesday, former Washington, D.C., school chancellor Michelle Rhee took herself out of the running for education secretary, clearing the path for DeVos’ appointment.

In a statement, DeVos said she was honored to help Trump “make American education great again” — a play on Trump’s campaign slogan.

“The status quo in education is not acceptable,” DeVos said. “Together, we can work to make transformational change that ensures every student in America has the opportunity to fulfill his or her highest potential.”

Trump’s decision to have DeVos run the U.S. Department of Education comes four days after she met with the president-elect and Vice President-elect Mike Pence at Trump’s golf club in Bedminister, New Jersey.

At that meeting, Trump, Pence and DeVos discussed Common Core and “setting higher national standards and promoting the growth of school choice across the nation,” according to a statement released Saturday from Trump’s transition team.

DeVos is part of multiple groups that have offered support for the controversial Common Core state curriculum standards. But her views on the subject are less than clear.

DeVos pushed back Wednesday on conclusions some conservative activists and journalists have drawn that she supports Common Core.

"Have organizations that I have been a part of supported Common Core? Of course. But that’s not my position," DeVos wrote on her personal website. "Sometimes it’s not just students who need to do their homework."

Trump has vowed to get rid of the standards, calling them a “disaster” and saying the education curriculum “has to be local.” During the GOP primaries, Trump suggested he might get rid of the Department of Education altogether.

DeVos is chair of the American Federation for Children, a Washington, D.C.-based single-issue organization devoted to expanding school of choice options across the country.

Speaking in July during a school choice forum at the Republican National Convention in Ohio, DeVos accused teachers unions of holding back innovation in education and called them “a formidable foe” at both state and national levels.

In Michigan, DeVos sits on the board of the Great Lakes Education Project, which has operated as her influential family’s school choice advocacy arm in Lansing. For the past 14 years, the group has been actively advocating its education reform agenda in both the Capitol and state House and Senate elections, particularly Republican primaries.

The Great Lakes Education Project, known as GLEP, was instrumental earlier this year in getting the Michigan Legislature to abandon a plan to create a citywide commission in Detroit to regulate the opening and closure of charter schools.

DeVos is a former Michigan Republican Party chairwoman whose husband, Dick, unsuccessfully ran for governor in 2006.

The DeVos family, heirs to the Amway Corp. fortune, are the most prolific donors to the Michigan Republican Party, GOP officeholders and candidates.

During the presidential campaign, Betsy and Dick DeVos never publicly supported Trump, although other members of DeVos clan donated $245,000 to a fund to help elect Trump and other Republican candidates.

In 2000, Betsy and Dick DeVos funded an unsuccessful statewide ballot initiative to amend the state Constitution to allow tax dollars to be used for private school tuition through education vouchers. They have since advocated for school vouchers in other states.

In 2012, Dick DeVos led the charge in getting the Legislature to make Michigan a right-to-work state, eliminating work rules that made financial support of unions a condition of employment for teachers in public schools.

The DeVoses founded their own charter high school, the West Michigan Aviation Academy, located on the grounds of the Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids.

Gov. Rick Snyder weighed in Wednesday in a statement, saying Betsy DeVos “will mean great things for Michigan.”

“Betsy’s appointment will mean great things for Michigan and for children around the nation as she takes her no-nonsense commitment to empowering parents to the highest levels in Washington,” Snyder said. “I am also very pleased to see President-elect Trump has selected my fellow governor, Nikki Haley, to be U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. She has been an excellent governor, and I wish her luck in her new role.”

Detroit Regional Chamber President and CEO Sandy Baruah said of the announcement: “It’s good to have someone from Michigan in this critical role. We believe she will be an advocate for high academic standards and accountability.”

Lou Glazer, president of the nonpartisan Michigan Future Inc., said when he thinks about education, he assesses leaders based on whether they care about quality education for all children and if they are in favor of high-bar standards.

“On both of those things she has been, from what I know, she has been really good. She cares about quality urban education both here and nationally, and she is in favor of high standards,” Glazer said.

However, when it comes to unions and charter schools, DeVos is viewed as partisan, Glazer said.

“People have told me nationally she has been supportive of charter school organizations that are in favor of high standards, but here in Michigan when she got involved she was viewed as the reason the Legislature did not pass the (Detroit education) commission.

“She used her economic clout to have an open marketplace rather than the commission, which would have a way to assess whether charters are quality or not,” Glazer said.

Tonya Allen, president and CEO of the Skillman Foundation, and co-chair of Coalition for the Future of Detroit Schoolchildren, said on Wednesday that she is extraordinarily happy for DeVos and is grateful she is a supporter of Common Core.

“We have to focus on setting consistent standards so every child in our country, whether rural or suburban, will be able to compete nationally,” Allen said.

Allen said she and DeVos may disagree on policy issues, but DeVos has a set of values to improve education.

For DeVos to improve the national education system, the focus has to be reform and education restoration, Allen said.

“We need to be investing in and supporting the systems that we’ve already built. I hope she would do both of those things and not just be a disruptor,” Allen said.

While DeVos disagreed with the commission, Allen said ideology should not trump practical solutions for education.

“My challenge to her would be now that you have this federal authority, how will you bring practical solutions that benefit all children?” Allen said.

U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Zeeland Township, also lauded DeVos in a statement Wednesday. He said she has “been at the forefront of the effort to ensure every child in America has access to a quality education no matter their zip code,” and said DeVos will “disrupt business as usual in Washington.”

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush also praised DeVos as an “outstanding pick for Secretary of Education.”

Bush said “she has a long and distinguished history championing the right of all parents to choose schools that best ensure their children’s success. Her allegiance is to families, particularly those struggling at the bottom of the economic ladder, not to an outdated public education model that has failed them from one generation to the next.”

The Dick and Betsy DeVos Family Foundation, a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization, gave a $3 million no-interest loan to the school in tax year 2014, according to IRS records. Their Grand Rapids-based Windquest Group private investment firm also lists the school in its portfolio.

The family foundation reported a $55.7 million balance in 2014, the most recent filing available, including various investments with a fair-market value of $51.7 million.

Dan Quisenberry, president of the Michigan Association of Public School Academies, the state charter school association, said DeVos has been on the front lines of education policy in Michigan and nationally for almost 30 years.

“This is a great day for Michigan, and it’s an especially great day for the nation’s children,” Quisenberry said. “Betsy DeVos has been a champion for school children for decades, always putting their needs ahead of everything else.”

Lily Eskelsen García, president of the National Education Association, meanwhile, issued a statement saying DeVos has done more to undermine public education than support students.

“She has lobbied for failed schemes, like vouchers — which take away funding and local control from our public schools — to fund private schools at taxpayers’ expense. These schemes do nothing to help our most-vulnerable students while they ignore or exacerbate glaring opportunity gaps,” Garcia said.

DeVos has consistently pushed a corporate agenda to privatize, de-professionalize and impose cookie-cutter solutions to public education, Garcia said.

“By nominating Betsy DeVos, the Trump administration has demonstrated just how out of touch it is with what works best for students, parents, educators and communities,” she said.

David Hecker, president of the American Federation of Teachers in Michigan, called the intended appointment “devastating for public education” because DeVos has devoted her career to “undercutting” public education by advocating for private charter schools.

Hecker said he feels “bad that now the remaining 49 states” will have their education policy influenced by someone intent on enriching those in the private charter school industry.

“She wants her million and billionaire friends to profit off of childhood education,” Hecker said.

The Michigan Democratic Party also criticized the intended appointment in a statement Wednesday.

The party’s chairman, Brandon Dillon, said DeVos is someone “who has made it her life’s work to channel her family’s massive wealth toward destroying Michigan’s public education system, and now she’s about to oversee the policy and direction of education for the entire United States.

“She has consistently encouraged and enabled attacks on public school teachers and our children’s right to a quality public education, to line the pockets of corporate charter school investors and make her family’s extremely conservative views part of a mainstream curriculum.”

clivengood@detroitnews.com

(517) 371-3661

Twitter: @ChadLivengood

Staff Writer Jennifer Chambers contributed.

Read or Share this story: http://detne.ws/2ggm7Pe</s>U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has tapped wealthy Republican donor and school choice advocate Betsy DeVos to lead the U.S. Education Department, a post she has accepted, according to media reports on Wednesday.

DeVos, former chair of the Michigan Republican Party, met with Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence on Saturday and discussed "the Common Core mission, and setting higher national standards and promoting the growth of school choice across the nation," according to a Trump transition team statement.</s>President-elect Donald Trump appointed businesswoman Betsy DeVos as his education secretary and she has accepted the post, his transition team announced Wednesday.

“Betsy DeVos is a brilliant and passionate education advocate,” Trump said in a statement. “Under her leadership we will reform the U.S. 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.”

DeVos, of Grand Rapids, Mich., is the chairwoman of Windquest Group, a privately held investment firm, and has been active in politics for more than 35 years. She was elected chairperson of the Michigan Republican Party four times, according to her official biography.

But the experiences that would have best prepared her for the intricacies of education policy would come from her work as chairwoman of the American Federation for Children, which is dedicated to reforming the country’s K-12 education so that “parents, particularly those in low-income families, to choose the education they determine is best for their children.”

She also chairs the board of directors for the Philanthropy Roundtable and serves on a several other national and local boards: ArtPrize, American Enterprise Institute, Foundation for Excellence in Education and the DeVos Institute for Arts Management at the University of Maryland.

BuzzFeed reported that though DeVos “now says she’s opposed to the Common Core, she once advocated for it alongside Jeb Bush.” On the campaign trail, Trump constantly vowed to get rid of controversial education program.

DeVos graduated from Holland Christian High School in Holland, Mich., and Calvin College in Grand Rapids.

There had been speculation that Trump might tap former Washington, D.C. schools chancellor Michelle Rhee for the post but she officially took herself out of the running Tuesday.</s>Donald Trump has selected as education secretary a Michigan Republican who’s championed charter schools and contributed to efforts to ban same-sex marriage, raising questions about the next administration’s treatment of LGBT students.

On Wednesday, the president-elect announced Betsy DeVos would be his choice for the post at head of the Department of Education, citing her record as a businessperson, philanthropist and advocate for education reform.

“Betsy DeVos is a brilliant and passionate education advocate,” Trump said. “Under her leadership we will reform the U.S. 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. I am pleased to nominate Betsy as Secretary of the Department of Education.”

DeVos’ role may be temporary position if Trump gets his way with his campaign promise of abolishing the Department of Education, although that would require expending of a lot of political capital even with a Republican-controlled Congress.

Trump’s pick invoked the ire the progressive advocates as a result of DeVos’ support of charter schools, which is in line with the president-elect’s vision to offer parents vouchers to allow children to attend private schools using public education funds.

Randi Weingarten, a lesbian and president of the American Federation of Teachers, said in a statement DeVos is “the most ideological, anti-public education nominee put forward” since the establishment of the Department of Education.

“In nominating DeVos, Trump makes it loud and clear that his education policy will focus on privatizing, defunding and destroying public education in America,” Weingarten said. “DeVos has no meaningful experience in the classroom or in our schools. The sum total of her involvement has been spending her family’s wealth in an effort to dismantle public education in Michigan. Every American should be concerned that she would impose her reckless and extreme ideology on the nation.”

But DeVos and her family also has a history of opposing LGBT rights that may be an indication of the way she would guide schools to treat LGBT students as head of the Education Department.

According to a 2013 report in the Michigan LGBT publication PrideSource.com, Devos and her husband Dick Devos led the effort to put an anti-gay marriage amendment on the ballot in 2004 and contributed over $200,000 to the campaign, which ultimately succeeded. Dick Devos also contributed $100,000 in 2008 to pass Amendment 2 in Florida, an effort that banned same-sex marriage in the state.

In 2012, the revelation that Douglas and Maria DeVos Foundation, financially supported by Betsy Devos’ brother-in-law and Amway president Doug DeVos, donated $500,000 to the National Organization for Marriage in 2009 prompted calls in the LGBT community for a boycott.

Betsy Devos’ father, Edgar Prince, was a co-founder of the anti-LGBT Family Research Council, and her mother, Elsa Prince Broekhuizen, contributed $75,000 to pass the anti-gay marriage amendment in Michigan.

Jon Davidson, legal director for Lambda Legal said his organization is “quite concerned” of Devos leading the Department of Education, calling her “another arch-conservative who is totally out of the mainstream.”

“Lambda Legal plans to monitor closely any changes sought to be made by the Education Department and the Trump Administration generally on protections of LGBT students against discrimination and bullying, as well as other issues that could affect our and allied communities, and to fight to preserve the gains we have made,” Davidson said.

One thing DeVos could reverse as head of the Education Department is guidance from the Obama administration informing schools discriminating against transgender students amounts to a a violation of Title IX of the Education Amendment of 1972. That guidance, which Trump promised during his presidential campaign to rescind, required schools to allow transgender students to use the restroom consistent with their gender identity.

The Office of Civil Rights within DeVos’ Education Department could also more generally be thwarted from investigating and resolving complaints from LGBT students who say they faced discrimination in schools and the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

The Washington Blade placed a call Wedneday with the Dick & Betsy DeVos Family Foundation seeking comment on the way DeVos as education secretary would guide schools in treating LGBT students.

Despite the anti-gay donations from DeVos and her family, as a former chair of the Michigan Republican Party she at one time spoke out against anti-gay rhetoric within the GOP.

DeVos was among those condemning fellow Michigan Republican Dave Agema, who represents the state on the Republican National Committee, for his anti-Muslim and anti-gay comments. According to a 2014 report in the Detroit News, DeVos said she left messages with Agema to “encourage him to do the right thing. He should resign his position as national committeeman.”

When Agema didn’t respond, DeVos said she called Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus, asking him to either find a way to dump Agema or marginalize him to make it clear the party does not support his views.

“He has a right to express his ideas and opinions, but he also has a responsibility to the party” DeVos was quoted as saying at the time. “He has damaged his position and his party. He reflects badly on Republicans and on Michigan.”

Although rules prevent the Republican National Committee from ejecting a member, the committee expressed it displeasure by censuring Agema. Nonetheless, Agema’s views are consistent with the 2016 Republican Party platform, which opposes same-sex marriage, rejects non-discrimination protection for LGBT people under the law and hints at support for widely discredited “ex-gay” conversion therapy.

Additionally, in the aftermath of the mass shooting in Orlando, Fla., claiming the lives of 49 people and wounded 53 others, the Devos family committed $400,000 to the OneOrlando Fund, which seeks to aid the victims of the massacre, according to a report in the Orlando Sentinel.

Stephanie White, executive director of Equality Michigan, said she’s “cautiously hopeful” about the DeVos appointment because the nominee has “demonstrated a capacity to grow over the years in her understanding and relationship towards LGBT people.”

“Of course so much depends upon who she appoints, especially to the office of civil rights,” White said. “She has stated that she believes all kids deserve a quality education. I am hopeful that she will understand that ‘all kids’ includes both gay and especially transgender kids as well.”

White said DeVos has undergone an “evolution” on LGBT rights, attributing that to the Michigan Republican’s relationship with her long-time trusted advisor Greg McNeilly, who’s gay.

DeVos’ appointment is subject to Senate confirmation. Under the rules instituted by Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) when he served as a majority leader of the chamber, ending a filibuster on confirmation would require a bare majority of 51 votes. Another 51 votes are necessary to confirm her to the seat.

Eliza Byard, executive director of GLSEN, said in a statement said she’s “deeply concerned” about the DeVos appointment, saying the nominee”s advocacy for vouchers undermines protections for LGBT students.

“True educational equity requires schools that serve the most at-risk students, including students of color; students with disabilities; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and/or questioning students; and English-language learners,” Byard said. “Vouchers and tuition tax credits do not advance this cause. As we have seen over the past eight years, federal civil rights oversight of education is essential to ensure that all students in this country have real access to opportunity.”</s>With Wednesday's announcement that President-elect Donald Trump has appointed GOP donor Betsy DeVos as his education secretary, it looks like there will finally be a DeVos in the White House.Writing of her husband, Dick DeVos, who unsuccessfully ran for Michigan governor in 2006,' Curt Guyette deduced that the Amway Corp. heir must have had the presidency in his sights, and it appears the couple have bought their way into one. Through their Dick and Betsy DeVos Foundation, the clan has given millions to GOP campaigns and conservative causes over the years, and is one of the largest contributors to the Michigan Republican Party.They also obviously hate public education.In 1993, they successfully pushed for Michigan's law that allowed for charter schools, privately run entities that can receive state funds as an alternative to public schools. In 2000, they unsuccessfully ran an effort to amend the state constitution to allow vouchers, or public dollars going to private schools. The next year, she established the Great Lakes Education Project, an anti-union group that this year pushed successfully to dismantle legislation that would regulate the proliferation of failed charter schools in Detroit, which compete with the city's struggling public schools.The problem is that DeVos's policies are so obviously not working here in Michigan — at least for students.A yearlong investigation by thewas blunt in its assessment of Michigan's charters, which have lax state oversight: "Wasteful spending and double-dipping. Board members, school founders and employees steering lucrative deals to themselves or insiders. Schools allowed to operate for years despite poor academic records. No state standards for who operates charter schools or how to oversee them." The report also noted Michigan has a record number of charter schools run by opaque, for-profit companies.It appears, then, that a DeVos pick is the opposite of Trump's claims to "drain the swamp" of politics.“Donald Trump's pick of Betsy DeVos for Secretary of Education proves that having a shortage of experience means nothing as long you don't have a shortage of money," Progress Michigan executive director Lonnie Scott said in a statement released shortly after the news of Trump's pick broke. "The DeVos family has been using their deep pockets to influence the Michigan legislature for years and it looks like they have finally bought their way into a presidential administration as well."</s>President-elect Donald Trump appointed billionaire businesswoman Betsy DeVos as his education secretary, and she has accepted the post, his transition team announced Wednesday.

“Betsy DeVos is a brilliant and passionate education advocate,” Trump said in a statement. “Under her leadership, we will reform the U.S. 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.”

DeVos, of Grand Rapids, Mich., is chair of Windquest Group, a privately held investment firm, and has been active in politics for more than 35 years. She was elected chair of the Michigan Republican Party four times, according to her official biography.

But the experiences that would have best prepared her for the intricacies of education policy would come from her work as chair of the American Federation for Children, dedicated to reforming the country’s K-12 education so that “parents, particularly those in low-income families, [may] choose the education they determine is best for their children.” The AFC is a conservative organization that advocates school vouchers.

“I am honored to accept this responsibility to work with the president-elect on his vision to make American education great again,” DeVos said in the statement. “The status quo in education is not acceptable. Together, we can work to make transformational change that ensures every student in America has the opportunity to fulfill his or her highest potential.”

She also chairs the board of directors for the Philanthropy Roundtable and serves on a several other national and local boards, including those of ArtPrize, the American Enterprise Institute, the Foundation for Excellence in Education and the DeVos Institute for Arts Management at the University of Maryland.

BuzzFeed reported that although DeVos “now says she’s opposed to the Common Core, she once advocated for it alongside Jeb Bush.” On the campaign trail, Trump constantly vowed to get rid of the controversial education program.

DeVos graduated from Holland Christian High School in Holland, Mich., and Calvin College in Grand Rapids.

There had been speculation that Trump might tap former Washington, D.C., schools chancellor Michelle Rhee for the post, but she declared herself out of the running Tuesday.</s>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 U.S. 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 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. As speculation swirled Tuesday that DeVos might snag the top education job, conservative opponents of Common Core began to warn Trump away from DeVos. Frank Cannon, the president of the adamantly anti-Common Core American Principles Project, said in a statement Tuesday that DeVos would be "a very Jeb-like pick" and called it "puzzling" that Trump was considering DeVos for the post. "He repeatedly assured parents across the heartland that he intended to return power over education to local schools," Cannon said of Trump. "It is puzzling, then, to see reports that the Trump transition team is considering an establishment, pro-Common Core Secretary of Education -- this would not qualify as 'draining the swamp' -- and it seems to fly in the face of what Trump has stated on education policy up to this point." After the pick was announced, the pro-Trump news site Breitbart blared the headline: "TRUMP ANNOUNCES PRO-COMMON CORE EDUCATION SECRETARY" -- noting the second apparent betrayal in as many days. The site also rebuked Trump's announcement he no longer plans to push for prosecution of his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton as a "broken promise." DeVos did not mention Common Core in a statement Wednesday, but said broadly that "the status quo in education is not acceptable." "Together, we can work to make transformational change that ensures every student in America has the opportunity to fulfill his or her highest potential," DeVos said in a statement. Trump spokesman Jason Miller said Sunday that Trump's meeting with DeVos "largely focused on Common Core, setting higher national standards" and "promoting school choice across the nation." Bush, for his part, praised Trump's decision in a Facebook post, calling DeVos "an outstanding pick." "Her allegiance is to families, particularly those struggling at the bottom of the economic ladder, not to an outdated public education model that has failed them from one generation to the next," Bush wrote. "I cannot think of more effective and passionate change agent to press for a new education vision, one in which students, rather than adults and bureaucracies, become the priority in our nation's classrooms." DeVos has been involved in Republican politics both as a donor and as a party official for decades and served as the state Republican Party chair in Michigan. The National Education Association, the largest labor union in the US, was quick to slam Trump's pick, arguing that DeVos has "done more to undermine public education than support students" and accusing her of pushing "a corporate agenda." "She has lobbied for failed schemes, like vouchers — which take away funding and local control from our public schools — to fund private schools at taxpayers' expense. These schemes do nothing to help our most-vulnerable students while they ignore or exacerbate glaring opportunity gaps. She has consistently pushed a corporate agenda to privatize, de-professionalize and impose cookie-cutter solutions to public education," the labor union representing teachers and school administrators said in a statement. "By nominating Betsy DeVos, the Trump administration has demonstrated just how out of touch it is with what works best for students, parents, educators and communities."</s>President-elect Donald Trump intends to name Betsy DeVos, a conservative activist and billionaire philanthropist who has pushed forcefully for private school voucher programs nationwide, as his nominee for Education Secretary, according to a person close to DeVos.

Trump’s pick underlines his promises on the campaign trail to put “school choice” — the expansion of taxpayer-funded charter schools and vouchers for private and religious schools — at the center of his efforts on education.

His embrace of DeVos, a Michigan power broker and major donor to the GOP and its candidates around the country, shows a willingness to look outside his circle of loyalists. DeVos donated money to Republican primary contenders Carly Fiorina and Jeb Bush before throwing her support behind Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida. She was never an enthusiastic Trump supporter, telling the Washington Examiner in March that she considered him an “interloper” who “does not represent the Republican Party.”

Teachers unions and other proponents of public schools are likely to decry DeVos’s nomination as catastrophic attack on public education. Some conservative groups also are likely to be unhappy; they have argued that choosing DeVos signals that Trump is wavering on his vehement opposition to the Common Core State Standards.

DeVos, 58, has not said much about the Common Core, the set of math and reading guidelines adopted by most states. But she has ties to several pro-Common Core organizations, including as a member of the board of the Foundation for Excellence in Education, started by former Florida governor and Republican presidential contender Jeb Bush.

“President-elect Trump rightly slammed Governor Jeb Bush for his support of Common Core on the campaign trail,” Frank Cannon, president of the American Principles Project, said in a statement Tuesday warning Trump not to pick Devos. “Betsy DeVos would be a very Jeb-like pick.”

DeVos, a former chairwoman of the Michigan Republican Party, and her husband Dick DeVos, an heir to the Amway direct-sales fortune, co-founded the Windquest Group, which invests in technology and manufacturing. They have poured millions of dollars into lobbying for voucher programs across the country.

Betsy DeVos serves as chairman of the American Federation of Children and its associated 527 action fund, a platform she has used to support candidates who endorse vouchers and charter schools — and to attack candidates who don’t.

While hers is hardly a household name, she has helped change the landscape of education across the country. Three decades ago, there were no state voucher programs. Now, according to the advocacy group EdChoice, about 400,000 children in 29 states are going to private schools with the help of public dollars, some via vouchers and others through derivative programs, such as tax-credit scholarships or education savings accounts.

DeVos is working toward a scenario in which “all parents, regardless of their ZIP code, have had the opportunity to choose the best educational setting for their children,” she told Philanthropy magazine in 2013. “And that all students have had the opportunity to fulfill their God-given potential.”

Research on the impact of voucher programs shows mixed results.

Several recent studies have found that voucher recipients’ math and reading test scores decline after they transfer from public to private schools. But other studies have found that voucher recipients are more likely to enroll in and complete college than their counterparts who attend public schools.

Pro-voucher advocates see in the Trump administration an extraordinary opportunity to advance the cause on a national scale, giving more parents the ability to use tax dollars to pay for private schools.

The president-elect has proposed redirecting $20 billion in federal spending toward a grant program to states for expanding vouchers and charter schools. He has also said he wants to use the bully pulpit of the presidency to persuade states to devote another $110 billion toward vouchers — enough, he has said, for every child living in poverty to have a scholarship of $12,000 toward the school of his or her choice.

While charter schools have won bipartisan support during the past two decades, vouchers remain a politically polarizing issue, with most Democrats — including President Barack Obama — opposing them, arguing they drain public schools of needed resources and send taxpayer dollars to unaccountable private schools.

Vouchers also send money to religious schools, a fact that has provoked not just political resistance but also a series of legal challenges in state courts. Vouchers and tax credits “force all Americans to pay for religion, whether they believe in that faith or not. That’s fundamentally wrong,” Barry Lynn, executive director for Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, said in 2010.

Critics of voucher programs fear that the Trump administration could wield federal dollars to dramatically undermine teachers unions and weaken the civic institution of public education, redirecting dollars from public schools to private institutions that don’t have the same obligation to serve all students — including those who are needy or have learning disabilities.

DeVos has donated to and worked with many groups advocating for charter schools and voucher programs. She has also given to several Christian schools and conservative policy think tanks such as the American Enterprise Institute.

She and her husband, the 2006 Republican nominee for Michigan governor, have also made substantial gifts in support of the arts.

Betsy DeVos served on the board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts from 2004 to 2010, departing with a $22.5 million gift to support training for arts leaders. That program, the DeVos Institute of Arts Management, is now based at the University of Maryland.

DeVos and her husband are major GOP donors who during the 2016 cycle gave a total of $2.7 million to the GOP and to Republican candidates and political action committees; they made no donations to Democrats, according to an analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics.

DeVos’ brother is Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater, one of the most profitable private security firms during the Iraq War. Blackwater came under intense scrutiny after the company’s guards shot and killed 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad in 2007; four guards were convicted on charges related to the massacre. Prince has since left the company, which is now called Academi.
Former chairwoman of the Michigan Republican Party Betsy DeVos is named as United States Secretary of Education.