EDUCATION

Scott Walker endorses political benefactor Betsy DeVos

Erin Richards and Annysa Johnson

President-elect Donald Trump and Betsy DeVos, Trump's selection to serve as secretary of education.

Billionaire philanthropist Betsy DeVos — whose family has contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to Gov. Scott Walker's political career and helped pay off his presidential campaign debt — has earned Walker's endorsement for secretary of education under President-elect Donald Trump.

DeVos' confirmation hearing kicked off late Tuesday afternoon. It was postponed for six days after Democrats complained she had not made all the necessary financial disclosures.

In a letter Monday, Walker urged the U.S. senators in charge of the hearing to confirm the school-choice advocate as the nation's top official in charge of public education.

"For too long, burdensome federal regulations have hindered our state's ability to provide Wisconsin students and their families the best education possible," Walker wrote to Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.), chairman and ranking minority member, respectively, of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions. "Betsy DeVos will help to create an effective education system and I strongly support her confirmation," Walker's letter said.

DeVos, her family members and the American Federation for Children, the national philanthropy she chaired before stepping down to pursue the secretary of education role, have funded school choice initiatives around the country, as well as the campaigns of politicians who support them. Since 2010, the AFC has spent at least $4.5 million on Wisconsin campaigns to elect Republicans and other candidates who are proponents of school choice, according to the liberal group One Wisconsin Now.

Walker has long been a supporter of taxpayer-funded private voucher schools, and as governor has presided over their expansion out of Milwaukee into Racine and now statewide.

While hearings to green-light education secretaries are usually perfunctory, DeVos has faced criticism for the millions she has given to the lawmakers who will decide whether to confirm her and to state-level officials like Walker offering support for her.

According to the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank in Washington, D.C., Walker himself received $342,000 from the DeVos family since 2010. The group pointed out that of the 18 Republican governors who penned a DeVos endorsement letter last week to HELP Committee chairman Alexander, Walker and eight others had received more than $700,000 in donations from DeVos and her family.

“It’s misleading for Governor Walker to say Betsy DeVos is an ‘inspired choice’ for Education Secretary without disclosing that he has received $342,600 from DeVos and her family when endorsing her nomination, including a massive one-time donation of $251,000 during the recall election," Catherine Brown, vice president for education policy at the Center for American Progress, said in a statement.

Federal Election Commission records show that last year nine members of the DeVos family gave the maximum $2,700 donation apiece — more than $24,000 in all — to help pay down the campaign debt left over after Walker ended his GOP primary bid for president in September 2015.

Journal Sentinel reporters Jason Stein and Brittany Carloni contributed to this report.

Contact Erin Richards at erin.richards@jrn.com or 414-224-2705. Contact Annysa Johnson at annysa.johnson@jrn.com or 414-224-2061.