Donald Trump,Betsy DeVos

President-elect Donald Trump and Betsy DeVos shake hands at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster clubhouse in Bedminster, N.J., Saturday, Nov. 19, 2016. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

LANSING, MI -- Educators in Michigan have long known Betsy DeVos as a proponent of school choice and vouchers, something they worry could hurt public schools nationally as she takes the position of Secretary of Education under President-elect Donald Trump.

"Her appointment is an affront to the children of America and educators of America. She is staunchly anti-public education," said David Hecker, president of American Federation of Teachers Michigan.

Michigan Education Association President Steven Cook had a similar take.

"In Michigan, we know firsthand how disastrous DeVos' ideology is, as she has spent decades wielding her family's money and influence to destroy public education and turn our schools and students over to for-profit corporations," said Cook in a press release.

Perhaps what educators know her best for is a push to allow vouchers in Michigan, which would have allowed parents to use public money to put their children through private schools.

The roadblock? Michigan's constitution, which states "No public monies or property shall be appropriated or paid or any public credit utilized... to aid or maintain any private, denominational or other nonpublic, pre-elementary, elementary, or secondary school."

The DeVos family pushed a constitutional change to allow for vouchers in 2000. It failed. But now Michigan educators are worrying Betsy DeVos will take up the issue again in her new position.

"She wants to turn all of public education into for-profit charter schools and destroy our public schools," Hecker said.

On the ground in Michigan, the DeVos family funds the Great Lakes Education Project, which advocates for school choice. Asked about concerns that DeVos could push vouchers on the national level, the group's Executive Director Gary Naeyaert said those were valid.

"They should be concerned. They're the ones who have stood in the way of real accountability and real choice for parents," Naeyaert said.

He said 29 states have some form of publicly funded private school choice. And Michigan made an early run at the ballot, he noted, while successful states had gotten vouchers instituted through litigation or legislation.

And while vouchers flopped, several initiatives supported by DeVos or GLEP have flown. Right to Work made it possible for teachers to eschew unions, for example, and in 2011 Michigan lifted its cap on the number of charter schools in the state.

In Michigan, without vouchers, almost 23 percent of students use school choice. While 13 percent of those are crossing school lines to attend different districts, 10 percent are attending charter schools.

The Michigan Association of Public School Academies, a charter school association, praised DeVos's appointment.

Trump has spoken about school choice on the campaign trail, and proposed a $20 billion initiative to support school choice.

But it's unclear how much power a Secretary of Education would actually have over vouchers directly, said MSU Associate Professor of Education Policy Joshua Cowen. The U.S. Department of Education has historically used federal funding to incentivize state behavior, not taken over directly.

"I suspect a lot of this is going to be wait and see until she gets in there and works with congress and sort of decides how to incentivize school choice across the country," Cowen said.

Kelly Boston, a school librarian in Wayland, said she worried that expanding choice would put some groups of students at a disadvantage.

"I think every school should be quality and we should be working on making public schools quality for every student, not a select few," Boston said.

Kari Selleck, curriculum director at Owosso Public Schools, has been in education for more than 30 years. During that time, she's seen money get diverted from public schools. To her it's disheartening that DeVos hasn't seen that firsthand, or experienced being an educator.

"I have difficulty with someone being appointed to that position who has not served as a teacher or an administrator and has not served in public education at all. That's very, very worrisome," Selleck said.

And aside from choice and vouchers, Selleck worries about the Common Core curriculum's fate with DeVos and Trump at the helm.

"We've built our entire curriculum around them, and have for the last several years. So I would just be exhausted and frustrated to see an overturn of the Common Core," Selleck said.

Hecker also worries DeVos would want to over-test children. For years she's thrown her influence around in Michigan, he said, which should be a warning about what she'll do nationally.

"I feel for the other 49 states that they now have to deal with Betsy DeVos, and for all of us because now we have to deal with her in a position of power, not just power that comes from being rich," Hecker said.