President-elect Donald Trump has chosen the first women for posts in his administration, picking South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley to serve as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and school-choice advocate Betsy DeVos as his secretary of education, his transition team said Wednesday.
Ms. Haley long held reservations about Mr. Trump’s candidacy during the GOP primary, and endorsed both Sens. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz during the primary.
But both sides seemed to have warmed to each other after Mr. Trump won the Nov. 8 election. U.N. ambassador is a key post, advising the White House on foreign policy issues and representing the U.S. in discussions with other countries.
Ms. DeVos, 58 years old, a former Michigan Republican Party chairwoman, would enter the office when traditional public schools are fighting charter schools for students, as enrollment drives state and local funding. Some school districts, including the Los Angeles Unified School District, have reported losing thousands of students and millions of dollars.
Charter schools, publicly funded campuses that are mostly privately run, are the fastest-growing educational option. Charter enrollment grew 219% from 2004 to 2014 to more than 2.5 million students, while school-district enrollment dropped by 1%, according to an analysis of the latest data from the National Center for Education Statistics.
