To the editor: Your editorial on how Secretary Betsy DeVos has “messed up” everything to do with college debt at the Department of Education does not reveal the whole ugly picture.

To say that she “just needs to treat American college students fairly” prompts the question, why is she unwilling to do her job? Let’s explore some possibilities.

She and her billionaire husband have donated millions to causes and politicians that promoted the privatization of public schools and the use of tax dollars to support these private and religious campuses. Her so-called experience in public education comes from numerous ties to student debt collection companies and many others that have profited from public education money.

DeVos was required to divest herself from these companies shortly after her confirmation. To date there is no evidence that she has done so. Her defiance of a court order to stop collecting debt from students who had been bilked by Corinthian Colleges was characterized by the judge as “gross negligence.”


Like so many of Trump’s Cabinet appointees, DeVos is just another fox guarding the henhouse.

Christine Rios, Murrieta