By Brian Sousa, Opinions and Editorials Editor
Betsy DeVos, a name some of you may have heard of in the past few weeks, has been selected by President Trump to become Secretary of Education. And let me tell you as bluntly as possible – she may be the worst cabinet pick Trump has selected.
Let’s start with the basics. DeVos is as far away from an ordinary American as can be. Her and her family are estimated to have a fortune of over 5 billion dollars.
DeVos and her children have never attended a public institution of any kind. She has no degree in education, no teaching experience, and has never taught anyone anything.
She believes in pro-Christian, for-profit education systems, charter schools, and also supports the notion that public school teachers are “overpaid.”
Why would someone like this become the person in charge of distributing tens of millions of dollars for educational purposes throughout the entire country?
Maybe it’s the fact that she donated an estimated $9.5 million to Trump’s campaign.
Maybe it’s the fact that she stated her family donated close to 200 million dollars to the Republican party.
I find it disgusting that someone so rich, so wealthy, and so obviously corrupt could be selected for this position. But I’m also not surprised. With the amount of money she has donated to Trump and his Republican friends, I have no doubt that her selection was an inside deal of sorts.
Because of how public this knowledge is, she has been grilled from day one.
Senators from all over the country, including Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, have been strong critics of her selection.
The reason why I bring her up to my family, friends, and colleagues all the time is that Trump never planned on “draining the swamp” as he insisted throughout his campaign.
It was all talk. He said he was going to get rid of insider politics, and fix the corruption of Washington.
How can he explain DeVos then? Someone with no support for public education? Someone who donated millions to his campaign? It’s quite a ridiculous notion to think she would have been selected without those donations.
So at the end of the day, we must call our senators and demand that they reject Betsy DeVos. Sign a petition online. Attend a rally. We must stand up and fight for what we believe in.