The woman who could be a bigger "disaster" than Betsy DeVos

The MoJo Daily newsletter, Monday through Friday. [View in browser]( [Mother Jones Daily Newsletter](     August 10, 2023 I hate to force the exercise. But imagine with me for a moment, Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis wins the White House. Who are the new faces of the administration? Introducing Erika Donalds, who my colleague Kiera Butler reports could already be [auditioning for the role of education secretary](. But not for DeSantis, who helped catapult Donalds into a powerful force in Florida's educational policies. Donalds, Kiera reports, has essentially dumped DeSantis amid the Florida governor's flagging poll numbers and hitched her star to Trump's wagon. The former president, in turn, appears to be paying attention. [And the stakes couldn't be higher](: If Trump were to tap Donalds as his secretary of education, University of Connecticut’s Green worries about her “removing even any ‘nudge nudge, wink wink’ toward the idea that [charter schools] are public.” He speculated that if Donalds were given such a position of power, she could lay the groundwork for allowing states to use public funding for religious schools—a move that could be especially advantageous for Christian Hillsdale College and its network of classical charter schools, as well as the companies helping spread their gospel. That might sound a whole lot like Betsy DeVos. But some say Donalds is far worse. "[Betsy DeVos was a disaster. I think Erika Donalds could be worse](," a retired University of Florida professor of education who has followed Florida’s move toward conservatism told Kiera. Her feature, out today, is worth digging into even if it is a touch depressing to consider. Because this is a cast of characters that, like the last time around, have the potential to wreck the systems barely hanging on these days. —Inae Oh Advertisement [House Subscriptions Ad]( [Top Story] [Top Story]( [At Least 36 Dead in Maui Fires as Toll Rises: “We Barely Made It Out.”]( “It was like a war zone,” one local recalls. BY OLIVER HOLMES AND EDWARD HELMORE SPONSORED CONTENT BY SIERRA NEVADA ALLY   Where civics, culture and climate coverage converge The Sierra Nevada Ally is an independent, nonprofit news publication building healthy communities informed by facts, with a focus on environmental, civics, and cultural reporting from underserved communities across the U.S. West. We believe high-quality factual information should be freely available to ALL – regardless of background or socioeconomic status – and are supported by readers at [sierranevadaally.org](. [Trending] ["Betsy DeVos was a disaster. I think Erika Donalds could be worse."]( BY KIERA BUTLER   [How police work the media when civilians die in their hands]( BY JULIA MÉTRAUX   [State pension fund is helping a Middle Eastern firm export Arizona's precious groundwater]( BY NATHAN HALVERSON   [In another sign of Florida's democratic decay, DeSantis suspends an elected prosecutor]( BY PEMA LEVY Advertisement [House Store Ad]( [Special Feature] [Special Feature]( [One man's aerial crusade against West Virginia's coal industry]( Citizen vigilante uses his drone to expose polluters—"I don't have a lot of friends around here." BY OLIVER MILMAN [Fiercely Independent] Support from readers allows Mother Jones to do journalism that doesn't just follow the pack. [Donate]( Did you enjoy this newsletter? Help us out by [forwarding]( it to a friend or sharing it on [Facebook]( and [Twitter](. [Mother Jones]( [Donate]( [Donate Monthly]( [Subscribe]( This message was sent to {EMAIL}. To change the messages you receive from us, you can [edit your email preferences]( or [unsubscribe from all mailings.]( For advertising opportunities see our online [media kit.]( Were you forwarded this email? [Sign up for Mother Jones' newsletters today.]( [www.MotherJones.com]( PO Box 8539, Big Sandy, TX 75755