The Privatization Strategy of Pioneer Institute and Betsy Devos
On Wednesday, September 12 a federal judge ruled Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s delay of Obama-era regulation of for-profit colleges as “unlawful.” The regulations forgive federal student loans from “misleading, deceitful, and predatory” lending programs at for-profit schools. DeVos and the Department of Education issued numerous delays to the regulations while simultaneously publishing their own proposed replacement rules that would limit the types of lenders that would qualify for borrower repayment, a process that the judge ruled as “procedurally defective.” DeVos’s “unlawful” actions are just one example of how President Trump and DeVos have sought to change course of federal education policy in favor of private interests. With DeVos, a wealthy manufacturing heiress, wife to the Amway heir, and businesswoman from Michigan with a long track record of supporting public funding for charter and religious schools as Education Secretary, charter school expansion has also been a top priority for Trump’s administration. And though the Trump administration continues to polarize the GOP, their focus on charter schools has drawn in supporters from across the right, particularly from Massachusetts charter school advocate Pioneer Institute.
Read the full article on the Political Research Associates website.