A lot of people in Donald Trump’s administration give the impression that they really aren’t qualified to serve at such a high level. But one person in particular leaves people wondering, “What is s/he doing there?” Namely, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.
Without a doubt, DeVos is the most unqualified Cabinet-level official in recent memory. She has no real understanding of what her department does, and has no background in education. Her pet project, Michigan’s charter school system, is an unmitigated disaster.
From the looks of it, she is primarily there as part of Trump’s effort to service the massive political debt he owes the religious right. She hoped to use her post to funnel federal money to religious schools while creating more charter schools. But federal money doesn’t account for nearly enough school funding to pull that off–a big reason why rumors abounded for much of November that DeVos wouldn’t stay in her post for very long.
Part of the reason for those rumors is that DeVos doesn’t spend a lot of time actually doing her job. In October, American Oversight revealed that DeVos only worked for 77 full days out of a possible 113 work days during her first six months in office. She took off early 21 times, and only worked three-and-a-half hours on those partial workdays. She took 15 days off, and had 11 long weekends. In other words, her schedule looks a lot like that of Trump, who has become infamous for taking off to play golf.
American Oversight obtained DeVos’ official calendar via a Freedom of Information Act request. She frequently traveled to posh vacation spots like Aspen, Vero Beach, and Savannah. She also makes a lot of official trips to Florida, where she has a vacation home.
Apparently DeVos didn’t heed the warning, because last weekend American Oversight busted her for going to Florida again.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is back in Florida.. again. Our investigation found she frequently travels to Florida where she owns a vacation home. See more here: https://t.co/rjS3mjyWxB https://t.co/PJtF5oPa8u
— American Oversight (@weareoversight) November 29, 2017
On Thursday, DeVos shot down any talk that she was leaving any time soon, saying that “we’re just getting started.” Well, Betsy, perhaps you should actually get started doing the job that our tax dollars pay you to do. After all, Cabinet secretaries can’t keep bankers’ hours.
(featured image courtesy Gage Skidmore, available via a Creative Commons BY-SA license)