New York had the Rockefeller oil fortune. Seattle has Bill Gates’ Microsoft money. Grand Rapids, Michigan, has the DeVos Amway bonanza.
The DeVos family has given away $1 billion, and this Rust Belt city of 195,000 has benefited from tens of millions of dollar a year of their largess. This little-examined philanthropy holds a key to understanding Betsy DeVos, Donald Trump’s billionaire nominee for secretary of education.
Her vision includes religious academies; charters schools with for-profit management companies, including fully online operators; and specialized public schools. The stated philosophy of Amway Corp., the multi-level marketing juggernaut based in a Grand Rapids suburb, could easily apply to her brand of public education: “Personal opportunity and economic opportunity go hand in hand.”
DeVos marks a break with a bipartisan consensus, supported by other billionaires, especially Microsoft Corp. co-founder Gates. For years, while they have supported charter schools, especially in poor communities, these benefactors also have stressed accountability through testing and tying teacher pay to student performance.
By contrast, DeVos favors an approach that lets parents take public money through vouchers and spend it wherever they like -- including at private, religious schools.
“What sets her apart is that she favors market solutions,” said Robert Floden, dean of the Michigan State University College of Education.
‘Most Troublesome’
DeVos’s views will be on display this week in Washington, when the Senate has scheduled a hearing for Wednesday on her confirmation. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York had identified her as among the eight “most troublesome" Trump cabinet choices.
Growing up in nearby Holland before settling down in Grand Rapids, Michigan’s second-largest city, DeVos first found a way to adapt her conservative free-market politics and religion to the world of public education.
Take a tour of the institutions that educated her and you immediately find the powerful influence of religion. DeVos attended Holland Christian Schools, and she belongs to the Christian Reformed Church, a Calvinist denomination.