How’s this for missing the point? The New York Times assures readers that Betsy DeVos is no pushover. Even though she reportedly opposed Donald Trump’s repeal of protections for transgender students in private, DeVos smiled along publicly as her Trumpian overlord announced the move, then went to CPAC and denounced protections for trans kids. The Times apparently thinks the lesson people might take from this is that DeVos is a pushover:
But people who have known and watched Ms. DeVos through the years — as a leading advocate of charter schools and school vouchers, a former Michigan Republican Party chairwoman and a major Republican donor — warn against thinking that she will be a meek team player. She may be publicly gracious, even in the face of setbacks, they say. But in her home state, she earned a reputation as a driven, relentless and effective political fighter, using her family’s vast fortune to reward allies and punish foes, and working behind the scenes to pass legislation and unseat lawmakers who opposed her.
Okay, let’s reframe. DeVos has been single-minded and effective, if by “effective” you mean not “has improved education in Michigan” but “has achieved her ideological goals at the expense of educational quality.” She is absolutely not a pushover—which is why the lesson to be learned from her part in Trump’s attack on transgender students is that protecting transgender students is not a Betsy DeVos priority. She is ruthless—and she is on the same page as Donald Trump.
That’s evident elsewhere in her CPAC speech:
“Now let me ask you: How many of you are college students? The fight against the education establishment extends to you too,” she said. “The faculty, from adjunct professors to deans, tell you what to do, what to say, and more ominously, what to think. They say that if you voted for Donald Trump, you’re a threat to the university community. But the real threat is silencing the First Amendment rights of people with whom you disagree.”
In translation: The First Amendment applies to conservatives, not liberals. The secretary of education should be silencing college professors lest the Republican snowflakes in their classes feel oppressed by being taught things they disagree with.
Betsy DeVos may be better at smiling and looking harmless than Donald Trump, but don’t let her fool you like she’s apparently fooled the New York Times: when it comes to education policy, hating unions, and wanting to inject religion into governing, she’s at least as extreme as he is.