Confirmation Hearing Postponed for Trump Education Secretary Pick, an Anti-Gay, Anti-Public School Activist

DeVos Has Donated to 17 of US Senators Who Will Vote on Her Confirmation

Billionaire Betsy DeVos will not sit before the Senate this week for her confirmation hearing to become Secretary of Education in the Trump administration. The anti-public school activist who has donated millions to conservative politicians and causes – including a total of $10.4 million during this election cycle alone to Republicans. DeVos and/or her husband have donated to 17 of the U.S. Senators, all Republicans, who will be voting on her nomination, including four GOP senators who sit on the Education Committee. 

In a statement citing only “the request of the Senate leadership to accommodate the Senate schedule,” and giving no other reason for the postponement, the Republican Chairman and Democratic Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee announced DeVos’s hearing has been rescheduled for January 17.

“The move comes after Democrats raised concerns about the fact that the Office of Government Ethics, which has said it is overwhelmed by vetting Trump’s nominees, has not yet completed its review of DeVos’s financial holdings and potential conflicts of interest,” The Washington Post reports.

DeVos, an anti-gay activist, has donated $500,000 to the National Organization For Marriage (NOM), and over $200,000 to pass a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage in her home state of Michigan.

She is an ardent “school choice” advocate, and has worked for years to increase voucher programs that drain vital funds out of the public school system and in to private, for-profit charter schools that overall have not proven to deliver better results than public schools.

She is not shy about expecting a return on her investment of the millions of dollars she donates to Republicans. In 1997 she wrote that her “family is the largest single contributor of soft money to the national Republican party….I have decided, however, to stop taking offense at the suggestion that we are buying influence. Now, I simply concede the point. We expect to foster a conservative governing philosophy consisting of limited government and respect for traditional American virtues. We expect a return on our investment; we expect a good and honest government. Furthermore, we expect the Republican party to use the money to promote these policies, and yes, to win elections.”

You can respond directly to Betsy Devos by sending your comments to her on Twitter: @BetsyDeVos or via her website.
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