Is Trump really serious about draining the DC swamp? As America waits to hear if Trump has chosen vocal anti-Trumper Mitt Romney as his Secretary of State and SC Governor Nikki Haley (who publicly stated she didn’t want to vote for either Trump or HIllary), is named as the new Ambassador to the UN, many of Trump’s most ardent supporters are left wondering when he’s going to start choosing candidates who supported his candidacy?
As Michigan residents who watched never-Trumper Betsy DeVos support the ultimate never-Trumper, John Kasich (who was polling at 1% nationally in the primaries), this selection really has us scratching our heads. We keep thinking we’re going to hear the names of loyal conservatives like Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich, Rudy Giuliani, Sheriff David Clarke and Dr. Ben Carson who backed Trump from the moment it was clear he was then nominee, appointed to critical roles in Trump’s administration. Trump’s Attorney General pick Senator Jeff Sessions, his Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, and his National Security Advisor General Mike Flynn have offered many of us much needed hope that our country may be headed in the right direction…
Michigan Republican mega donor Betsy DeVos, whose husband’s family founded Amway, is reported to be on President-elect Donald Trump’s short list of candidates to head up the U.S. Department of Education.
But parent activists are suggesting Trump is getting the wrong advice from his transition team.
Writing at Townhall, Indiana activist and researcher Erin Tuttle and American Principles Project education fellow Jane Robbins assert Trump’s transition team “may be ignoring the concerns of the most populist movement American politics has seen since Reagan: the parents and teachers fighting Common Core.”
Citing many of the reported potential candidates’ associations with ardent Common Core supporter Jeb Bush, Tuttle and Robbins note:
DeVos has served on [Jeb Bush’s] foundation’s board of directors. Among these “experts” from Jebworld are alumni of Bush’s Chiefs for Change (Gerard Robinson and Tony Bennett) and former members of Bush’s gubernatorial education team(Hanna Skandera). All of these candidates predictably support progressive education in general and Common Core in particular. Indeed, Bennett was booted out of his position as Indiana State School Superintendent for that very reason. Why would Trump even consider someone coming out of the environment on which he heaped such scorn during the campaign?
West Michigan Politics reported that, like Donald Trump himself, the DeVos family has donated to the Clinton Foundation:
According to a WMP analysis of Clinton Foundation records, the DeVos family donated between $60,000-$130,000.
The Doug and Maria DeVos Family Foundation donated between $50,000-$100,000.
The Dick and Betsy DeVos Family Foundation donated between $10,000-$25,000
Dave DeVos donated between $1,000-$5,000.
Bloomberg also reported in July of 2015 that former President Bill Clinton “often earned higher speech fees, especially abroad. Amway paid him $700,000 for a February 2013 speech in Japan.”
A report at the Detroit News in July states that DeVos, a former Michigan Republican Party chair, was an at-large delegate for pro-Common Core Ohio Gov. John Kasich. Kasich received a grade of “F” at The Pulse 2016 for his support of the controversial standards. The former presidential candidate referred to parent activists in his state fighting against the Core as a “runaway internet campaign.”
“Let’s just say that I will be a more than interested bystander at the convention,” DeVos said.
Karen Braun who heads up Stop Common Core in Michigan wrote: “DeVos’ involvement with GLEP which supports Common Core and with the Foundation for Excellence in Education should make any denunciation of Common Core from DeVos’ lips suspect,” Vander Hart concludes.
Braun also tells Breitbart News because DeVos refused to support Trump at the Republican National Convention, she is skeptical of whether she would commit to Trump’s stated goal of removing the federal government from education.
“Disloyalty should not be rewarded with a cabinet post,” Braun asserts. “Her lobby group, GLEP, supports common core and P-20 competency based education or so called “school choice. I hope President-Elect Trump and the rest of the transition team think long and hard about this appointment.”
Betsy DeVos came out with a statement today on Twitter however, making it clear she is NOT a supporter of common core education:
Many of you are asking about Common Core. To clarify, I am not a supporter—period. Read my full stance, here: https://t.co/qB2nAXvX0B
— Betsy DeVos (@BetsyDeVos) November 23, 2016
Frank Cannon, president of American Principles Project, also released the following statement:
From the very beginning of his campaign, President-elect Donald Trump promised an end to the failed Common Core standards. He repeatedly assured parents across the heartland that he intended to return power over education to local schools.
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.
President-elect Trump rightly slammed Governor Jeb Bush for his support of Common Core on the campaign trail. Betsy DeVos would be a very Jeb-like pick, and the idea that Trump would appoint a Common Core apologist as Secretary of Education seems unlikely. We remain hopeful that Trump will pick a Secretary of Education who will return control over education to parents and local school districts – someone like Bill Evers, Sandra Stotsky, or Larry Arnn – and not someone who will simply rebrand and repackage the failed Common Core standards that were so thoroughly rejected by voters in both the GOP primary and in the November election.
For entire story: Breitbart News
