Upon becoming President Elect, Donald Trump announced his pick for Secretary of Education in November 23, 2016 to be Betsy DeVos. However her appointment was the first for the Secretary of Education to require a tie-breaking vote from the Vice President. Ultimately, on February 7, 2017 Michael Pence submitted a the winning vote, confirming Betsy DeVos as the Secretary of Education, 51-50. Interestingly, the entirety of supporting votes were balloted by Republican senate members while all Democrats and Independent members voted against DeVos.

DeVos is the wife of Dick DeVos, the Chief Executive Officer of Amway, and the daughter of Edgar Prince who founded the Prince Corporation. Many who argued against her taking this position, including the two Republican members that voted against her, greatly challenged her experience with the public school system. DeVos is most known for her extensive support of private schools, and has voiced her plans to channel federal taxes towards chartered schools once she is confirmed. She, herself has only attended private schools along with her children, which have prompted most Democrats to question her bias in her support of private schools. Furthermore, along with her disbelief in the public school system, DeVos has been greatly criticized for her involvement in school reform in Detroit, Michigan while chairwoman of the Republican Party in Michigan, which resulted in the marking of these charter schools with tests scores scraping the bottom percentiles of the entire country.

A large issue that stemmed from this election as well was that of party loyalty. Democrats who challenged her aptitude for such great control over the education system argue that many Republicans merely vote for DeVos because she was nominated by Trump, a Republican President. Likewise, Republican members believe that Democratic members refuse to view her support of charter schools as in the best favor for the new generation because of their own disagreements with President Trump’s political views.

The controversy surrounding her confirmation as Secretary of Education surpassed her preference of private schooling. As a woman who inherited money from both her husband, Dick DeVos, her father Edgar Prince, she was able to financially support the Republican Party at great lengths. Overall, DeVos had donated approximately $200 million dollars in support of Republican causes, which the public had considered when questioning the integrity of her nomination for such a high position by Donald Trump.

Overall, DeVos’s record as a supporter of private schools has earned her both advocates and detractors which have deepened the divide between the Democratic and Republican Parties. Nevertheless, as Secretary of Education, she is expected to oversee all evidence concerning the achievements and failures of both public and private schools and base her decisions off of research from both types of schooling systems. During her first week in this position, DeVos has been met with protests and criticisms concerning her qualifications and viewpoints. These criticisms escalated last week when she stated that the teachers at a certain school, Jefferson Middle School Academy, are in a “receiving mode” (instead of “in receivership”) which have been perceived by many as an over-simplified and ignorant statement. However, with her successful and failed attempts to reach out to schools, it’s unclear what reforms DeVos will make and how successful she will be in these goals.