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#  Cost of Protecting Betsy DeVos: $20 Million

November 19 2018

Written by Diane Ravitch.

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**EDUCATION POLITICS**--Why is Betsy DeVos afraid? In her first year in office, some protestors in Washington, D.C., objected to her visit at a public school.

Since then, she has had a special detachment of U.S. Marshalls [giving her round-the-clock protection.](https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/11/16/1813360/-While-teachers-struggle-billionaire-Education-Secretary-s-security-costs-to-hit-nearly-20-million)

Other cabinet secretaries have encountered protestors. None of them are guarded by U.S. Marshalls.

Of course, she is very special. She is a billionaire.

She doesn’t leave her office much. She has many days off.

She seldom visits schools, and in the few instances where she does, it is either a religious school or a charter school.

Her [public schedule indicates](https://www2.ed.gov/news/events/calendars/secschedule.html) that she doesn’t have much to do, perhaps a meeting once a day, perhaps not.

[Others have commented on her many “unexcused absences.”](https://novemoore.wordpress.com/2017/12/03/betsy-devos-has-very-poor-work-habits-unexcused-absences-high-rates-of-truancy/) A year ago, the media realized that she was absent from her job about 1/3 of the time and that she has poor work habits. Presumably she still has round-the-clock protection even when she skips work. A teacher who skipped work 1/3 of the time would be terminated.

Does she lack grit?

Does she have a guilty conscience about removing protection from transgender students, indebted college students, and sexual assault victims?

My guess is that she has led a sheltered life and wants to avoid public contact to the greatest extent possible.

***(**[Diane Ravitch](http://www.commondreams.org/author/diane-ravitch)*** *is a historian of education at New York University. Her most recent book is [Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public Schools](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385350880?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creativeASIN=0385350880&linkCode=xm2&tag=commondreams-20).)*

*-cw*

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