Who is Betsy Devos
Betsy DeVos, original name Elisabeth Dee Prince, (born January 8, 1958, Holland, Michigan, U.S.), American philanthropist and Republican political activist who served as the secretary of the U.S. Department of Education (2017– ) in the administration of Pres. Donald Trump.
Her father, Edgar Prince, was a wealthy industrialist who, with her mother, formed a foundation to make donations to such conservative Christian organizations as the Family Research Council and Focus on the Family. Her siblings included Erik Prince, founder of the private security agency Blackwater USA (after 2011, Academi). Betsy attended religious schools in Holland, Michigan, and in 1979 she earned a degree in business economics from Calvin College (Grand Rapids). That same year she married Richard (Dick) DeVos, Jr., son of the cofounder of the multilevel marketing company Amway. The couple later founded (1989) the Windquest Group, a private investment company.
Betsy Devos Quotes
1.Social justice and economics are both issues to me.
2. We’re not proposing any shifting of funding from public schools to private schools.
3. I support accountability.
4. I expect there will be more public charter schools.
5. I expect there will be more schools of any kind that haven’t even been invented yet.
6. We expect to foster a conservative governing philosophy consisting of limited government and respect for traditional American virtues.
7. There are not enough philanthropic dollars in America to fund what is currently the need in education.
8. There are not enough philanthropic dollars in America to fund what is currently the need in education.
9. You have to have teachers who are empowered to facilitate great teaching.
10. Parents no longer believe that a one-size-fits-all model of learning meets the needs of every child. And they know other options exist, whether magnet, virtual, charter, home, faith-based, or any other combination.
11. The bottom line is we believe that parents are the best equipped to make choices for their children’s schooling and education decisions.
12. If politicians in a state block education choice, it means those politicians do not support equal opportunity for all kids.
13. I can assure you I have never made decisions on my mother’s behalf on her foundation’s board.
14. I expect there will be more virtual schools.
15. Let me say, I fully embrace equality, and I believe in the innate value of every single human being and that all students, no matter their age, should be able to attend a school and feel safe and be free of discrimination.
16. We knew we had the resources to send our kids to whatever school was best for them.
17. I expect there will be more private schools.
18. Federal law must be followed where federal dollars are in play.
19. HBCUs are real pioneers when it comes to school choice. They are living proof that when more options are provided to students, they are afforded greater access and greater quality.
20. I need to stress that I could not be more supportive of great teachers and great teaching, no matter what kind of delivery vehicle they are teaching through. We have to support great teachers. They just have to be freed up to do what they do best.
21. I will not be deterred from my mission of helping kids in this country.
22. The bigger goal of giving all parents more choices is one that will have to be discussed and undoubtedly roundly debated, but we are going to have to continue to build the case. The momentum is there on the state level in many states. That’s where the energy needs to be harnessed in a new way.
23. All schools that receive public funding should be accountable, yes.
24. It would be fine with me to have myself worked out of a job, but I’m not sure that – I’m not sure that there will be a champion movement in Congress to do that.
25.We’ll be examining and auditing and reviewing all of the programs of the department and really figuring out what is the core mission and how can the federal department of education really support and enhance the role of the departments in the states.
26. Discrimination in any form is wrong. I don’t support discrimination in any form.
27. When we had segregated schools and when we had a time when, you know, girls weren’t allowed to have the same kind of sports teams – I mean, there have been important inflection points for the federal government to get involved in some of the areas around protecting students and ensuring safe environments for them – there is a role to play.
28. I don’t think Donald Trump represents the Republican Party… I think more and more people are going to realize that they really don’t trust him.
29. Every child in America deserves to be in a safe environment that is free from discrimination.
30. If you don’t live in an area with good public schools, you can move to a different place if you have the financial means to do so.
31. The older generations are too wedded to political parties, too wedded to romantic memories of what education was like when they were kids, and too wedded to the status quo group that clings to power.
32. President-elect Trump and I know it won’t be Washington, D.C., that unlocks our nation’s potential, nor a bigger bureaucracy, tougher mandates, or a federal agency. The answer is local control and listening to parents, students, and teachers.
33. As a kid, I grew up middle class, but my father was a great innovator with an entrepreneurial spirit, and it wasn’t long before my family became part of the infamous 1%.
34. If the question is around gun violence and the results of that, please know that my heart bleeds and is broken for those families that have lost any individual due to gun violence.
35. That’s where my heart has been for three decades is to really empower and allow all families the same kind of opportunities I’ve had for my kids.
36. I greatly appreciate being asked to be part of President-elect Trump’s team and I will continue to enthusiastically support him and his agenda for American renewal.
37. My family is the largest single contributor of soft money to the national Republican Party.
38. It shouldn’t matter what type of school a student attends, so long as the school is the right fit for that student.
39. Government tends to stifle innovation, and it abhors improvisation. Any good military strategist will tell you that a battle plan rarely survives past the first engagement. After that, you have to improvise to survive and to win.
40. Teaching is hard. It takes a lot of skill. Not everyone who tries can do it well. We need to admit that and act accordingly. We should reward and respect great teachers by paying them more, and we should stop rewarding seniority over effectiveness.
41. If you can’t get cell phone service in your living room, then your particular provider is failing you. You should have the option to find a network that does work.
42. Our nation’s commitment is to provide a quality education to every child to serve the public common good. Accordingly, we must shift the paradigm to think of education funding as investments made in individual children, not in institutions or buildings.
43. When governors such as John Engler, Mike Huckabee, and Mike Pence were driving the conversation on voluntary high standards driven by local voices, it all made sense.
44. Dick and I became increasingly committed to helping other parents – parents from low-income families in particular.
45. It is not fair to think that when students transit through a K-12 system that is not preparing them for beyond, that somehow we are going to wave a magic wand and things are going to be perfect for them at the higher-ed level.
46. Every child deserves to attend school in a safe, supportive environment where they can learn, thrive, and grow.
47. Every child deserves to attend school in a safe, supportive environment where they can learn, thrive, and grow.
48. I do support high standards, strong accountability, and local control.
49. Teachers deserve more respect than many give them, and more opportunities than the system affords them today.
50. Government tends to believe in top-down solutions, and government fears of bottom-up solutions.
51. Government likes committees… a lot. Committees kill all the really good ideas and generally all the really bad ideas. They produce middle-ground mush.
52. If a parent chooses to go to a school that is not a public school, then that is a decision made and a contract made with that provider.
53. If we can manage to break free, to open the system and embrace all choices for education, we will be the first to give politicians awards to hang on their office walls.
54. The president has made good on a promise to ensure that the American people are not subject to overreach… and fulfilled a commitment to keep America first and focus on American jobs.
55. We should celebrate the fact that, unlike some countries in the world, the United States makes promises that we will never send any student away from our schools.
56. We can focus on differences that divide us, or we can choose to listen and learn from each other’s experiences.
57. If you ask any of my kids today what their most important experience was in their education, they would say it was the travel and the ability to see and be in other cultures.
58. My faith motivates me to really try to work on behalf of and advocate for those who are least able to advocate for themselves.
59. One of the hallmarks of higher education and of democracy is the ability to converse with people with whom we disagree.
60. As we know, lots of people working together to solve problems doesn’t happen often enough, particularly here in Washington.
