It is no secret that the confirmation of Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education was a melodrama. Following a huge Democratic push against Trump’s selection, along with a few Republican senators fighting their own party, VP Mike Pence took the unprecedented action of breaking the confirmation tie with his own vote. DeVos is a billionaire donor to the Republican party and stirred controversy during her confirmation hearings, during which it was alleged that she was unable to serve in the role due to her non-education background. Now that she is concretely in her role, a position that she will most likely hold until Trump is no longer president, what can we as students expect from our new bureaucrat in chief?
Not much, unfortunately. The hearings revealed DeVos to be completely unfamiliar with the education system. She has admitted to never taking out student loans, as well as having no experience in running a bank or handing out funds, necessary experience for one in charge of administering federal Pell Grants. More disturbingly, DeVos divulged connections to Performant Financial, a student debt collection company, which, interestingly enough, has received complaints from a student in South Carolina over bad business. For any student receiving federal grants or taking out loans, alarm bells should be going off.
It is not my place to accuse DeVos of a breach of ethics. However, I do think her actions thus far in her position speak for themselves. During a speech to the CPAC, she joked about telling Bernie Sanders the classic conservative line, “there is no such thing as a free lunch,” completely ignoring the context of the joke for the Education Secretary for public schools, where free lunch is provided for students from low-income families. While in jest, this sentiment is also worrying to college students, who now understand that the new Education Secretary has no interest in easing their financial woes.
Betsy DeVos is by far the most “Trump” cabinet official. She is a billionaire with no experience in her field, with possible ethical breaches, who claims to stand up for the common man while being completely out of touch. Be very afraid, Gamecock Community.