DeVos, Betsy (1958-…), an American businesswoman and activist, served as secretary of education in the Cabinet of United States President Donald J. Trump from 2017 to 2021. The Department of Education promotes educational achievement and ensures that the nation’s citizens have equal access to education. Prior to becoming education secretary, DeVos had been best known for promoting school choice, which involves allowing parents to use public education funds to enroll their children in public or private schools of their choosing.
Elisabeth Dee Prince was born on Jan. 8, 1958, in Holland, Michigan, in the Midwestern United States. Her family and friends called her Betsy. Her father, Edgar Prince, founded a successful auto parts manufacturing company. Betsy attended private religious schools throughout her childhood. In 1979, she earned a bachelor’s degree in business economics from Calvin College, a private liberal arts college in Grand Rapids, Michigan, that is associated with the Christian Reformed Church . Also in 1979, she married Dick DeVos, a son of billionaire Richard DeVos, a cofounder of the Amway Corporation. Amway is a large direct sales and marketing company.
In 1989, Betsy and her husband cofounded the Dick and Betsy DeVos Family Foundation, a charitable organization based in Grand Rapids. The foundation funds projects in the arts, children’s welfare, education, religious outreach, and other areas. Also in 1989, the family started Windquest Group, an investment management firm. Betsy was serving as chairman of the firm at the time of her nomination as education secretary.
The DeVoses have worked to expand Christian influence in education since the 1980’s. Betsy has served as chairman of the American Federation for Children, a group that supports school choice. She also led the Alliance for School Choice, an organization with similar goals. The family has contributed millions of dollars to candidates who supported school choice and other conservative causes. In 1986, Betsy was elected to her first of several terms as a local delegate to the Michigan Republican Party. She served as the party’s chairman from 1996 to 2000 and from 2003 to 2005. Dick DeVos ran an unsuccessful campaign for Michigan governor in 2006.
In 2000, the DeVoses worked to pass a proposition that would amend the Michigan state constitution to allow public funds to be directed to private schools, including religious schools. The proposition failed, but the DeVoses remained devoted to reforming education in the state. They later led successful efforts to lift the state’s limit on the number of charter schools and to reduce government oversight of such schools. Charter schools are public schools that may operate independently of local school boards by agreement with the state.
In 2017, President Trump nominated Betsy DeVos to serve as education secretary. DeVos’s confirmation faced strong opposition from Democrats and teachers’ groups. Matters of particular concern to DeVos’s opponents were her support for redirecting public funds to private schools and her lack of experience with the public school system. In February, Vice President Mike Pence broke a 50-50 Senate deadlock to confirm DeVos as secretary of education. Pence’s vote marked the first time in U.S. history that a vice president cast a tie-breaking vote for a Cabinet nominee. DeVos resigned from the Cabinet in early January 2021, after pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol prior to the end of his term as president.
