Betsy DeVos, Trump’s education secretary, hails from a well-known conservative billionaire family that started the multilevel marketing company Amway. DeVos’ brother, Erik Prince, is the founder of security firm Blackwater.
In her home state of Michigan, Betsy DeVos has advocated for school choice and charter schools. “Traditional public schools are not succeeding, in fact,” she said in 2013. “In fact, let’s be clear, in many cases, they are failing.”