WATCH: Twitter Erupts After Press Secretary Defends Betsy DeVos as an ‘Educator.’ (She’s Not.)

‘She Is an Unbelievably Qualified Educator and Advocate for Students, Teachers, Parents’ Says Sean Spicer, Falsely

Twitter has been abuzz after the White House Press Secretary defended embattled Education Secretary nominee Betsy DeVos as an “educator.” She’s not an educator, not by any definition or stretch of the word – revealing just how remarkably uninformed the administration is about its own nominees. Yes, people on Twitter know more about Betsy DeVos than the White House spokesperson. 

DeVos’ confirmation Wednesday afternoon became questionable after two Republican Senators announced they will be voting against her. Assuming all Democrats do, just one more “no” from Republicans will kill Devos’ chances.

When asked if the White House is concerned, here’s what Press Secretary Sean Spicer had to say during the daily press briefing.

“I have 100 percent confidence she will be the next secretary of education,” Spicer insisted, facing the fact that just one more no vote derails her. “She is an unbelievably qualified educator and advocate for students, teachers, parents,” Spicer claimed.

In fact, DeVos is not an educator at all. She has no degree in education, she has never been a teacher or instructor, not at all. What DeVos is is a very, very rich person who come from and married into a wealthy family, and who has used that wealth to her advantage. 

“I think that the games being played with Betsy DeVos are sad,” Spicer continued. “She is someone who has been a tireless advocate over the past couple of decades to really support reforms that benefit children.”

That’s not accurate. DeVos, who is from Michigan and turned that state’s schools into a study of how not to “reform” them, is an anti-public schools activist who opposes putting money into public schools but wants the government to put money into private voucher programs. That is her entire focus: voucher programs.

Here’s how the highly-regarded Michigan-based EclectaBlog put it last month:

Ms. DeVos never attended a public school, never sent her kids to a public school, never studied education, never applied for or received Michigan teacher certification, never taught anyone anything, and only spends time with children in order to sell her water. Just as Donald Trump spending a couple of years at a military school doesn’t mean that he “knows more than the generals,” Betsy DeVos hawking her boxed water to kids in Flint doesn’t give her “the heart of a teacher”.

No–Betsy doesn’t know how to “fix” the schools. Because #1: the schools are not “broken.” And if there are some schools, like those in our urban centers, that are in pretty bad shape in MI, it’s likely that Betsy had something to do with that. And #2: Betsy’s only school fixin’ tool is money. The same green stuff that she and her acolytes don’t want spent on public schools, but is somehow magic fairy dust when sprinkled on religious and private schools and baked into vouchers. A word of advice to Ms. DeVos: You can’t “fix” what has been “broken” by competition and choice…with even more competition and choice.

No–Betsy has not “passed reforms on literacy”. She paid millions in last minute political contributions to Republican legislators in Michigan to ram through a 3rd grade reading bill that every single reading teacher and professional education association in the state said was a form of educational malpractice, wouldn’t help any kids to read any better, and would lead to even more–mostly minority–kids dropping out of school.

And here’s how Twitter responded to Sean Spicer’s false characterization: