DeVos merits a ‘yes’

The nomination of Betsy DeVos as education secretary is hanging by a thin political thread this week after the defections of two Republican senators.

And make no mistake about it, if she goes down, charter school advocates will have a good deal of soul-searching to do in the coming days.

Late last week U.S. Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska threw their lot in with their Democratic colleagues, but more pointedly with the enormously powerful teachers unions that have been working hard to see DeVos defeated.

Sure DeVos is a loyal Republican donor and along with her husband comfortably in the billionaire category. But she has also devoted more than two decades of her life supporting public charter schools in her home state of Michigan.

Which makes the opposition of organizations like the Massachusetts Charter Public School Association all the more shameful. The group wrote last month to U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who of course hardly needs a reason to vote against any Trump nominee, raising the issue of whether DeVos was committed to a strict oversight system for charter schools nationwide.

“We’re very concerned that if the federal government lowers the standards for charter schools, it would have a negative impact on Massachusetts charter schools,” MCPSA director Marc Kenen told the Herald last month.

What the group no doubt really fears is DeVos is also an advocate for school voucher programs — as if those two educational innovations are mutually exclusive.

DeVos may yet make it through the confirmation process, which will leave some of her enemies to sort out which side they’re really on.