Analysis
This story is based upon the new information released by the Devos for Governor camp on his and his wife Betsy DeVos’ donations to various groups such as the Education Freedom Fund. The article also mentions some of the donations from Governor Granholm and her husband and a comment from Granholm’s campaign manager on why DeVos still has not released any personal tax statements. There is a significant amount of information not included in the GR Press version of this AP story and readers should ask themselves if what was omitted was relevant or not. Also there is no critical or independent assessment of the donations made by DeVos and it’s relevance in an election for Governor. Do these donations have any influence on an election outcome and how might they impact policy if DeVos is elected?
Article Text
LANSING, Mich. (AP) Republican gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos and his wife gave the private foundation they run more than $29 million during a recent three-year period and handed out nearly $10 million from the foundation to schools, think tanks and various charities over that time.
They were the only contributors to the Dick and Betsy DeVos Foundation, which donated an average of $3.3 million annually in 2002, 2003 and 2004.
The largest beneficiary of the foundation those three years was the Education Freedom Fund, which got $978,000. Dick and Betsy DeVos are on the board of the fund, which gives scholarships usually around $1,000 each to low-income students who want to attend private schools.
The foundation’s second-largest contribution went to The Potter’s House, a private K-12 parochial school that serves largely low-income and minority students in Grand Rapids.
In all, the foundation spent more than $3.6 million over the three-year period on education-related groups, including colleges and charter schools, according to an Associated Press computer analysis of the foundation’s annual reports filed with the Internal Revenue Service.
Dick DeVos said Wednesday that the Education Freedom Fund has helped children attend schools of every stripe, from religious schools tied to Christianity, Judaism and Islam to public schools outside of a student’s home district.
“We just want every child to have access to a great education. So we just do what we can to help.”
The foundation also poured a lot of money into charities roughly $2.2 million. In other giving, churches or groups promoting religion got more than $1.9 million, while conservative think tanks got nearly $200,000 and other conservative groups got $485,000.
Health charities got around $607,000, while community development groups got nearly $208,000, arts groups got around $198,000 and $138,000 went to education lobbying groups. The foundation also gave money to several sailing groups and foundations, and to a ski and snowboard club in Aspen, Colo.
Most of the foundation money stayed in Michigan, with groups in the state getting $7.3 million, or 73 percent, of the donations from 2002-2004. The biggest share of the Michigan donations went to Grand Rapids $5.4 million while nearby Holland got about $500,000.
Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm and her husband, Dan Mulhern, gave $11,853 to charity in 2005, according to their federal tax return. Among the recipients were the United Way, the American Red Cross, St. John Student Parish in East Lansing and Focus:HOPE in Detroit.
Granholm campaign spokesman Chris De Witt said that it’s hard to measure how generous the DeVoses have been because the couple will not release their tax returns.
“This could just be one day’s interest on all the money that he has,” De Witt said. “Clearly there is a need for him to disclose his taxes.”
The foundation totals do not include money the DeVoses gave that didn’t flow through the foundation, although Dick DeVos said Wednesday the bulk of the couple’s giving goes through the foundation. The foundation contributed to 256 groups over three years, some of them annually.
The couple gave $5.2 million to the foundation in 2002, $10 million in 2003 and $14 million in 2004, the most recent year available. The foundation ended that year with $27.1 million in assets.
“We have not hidden the fact by laying out in our disclosure that we have been blessed financially,” Dick DeVos said. “Part of that responsibility is to be a blessing to others.”
Much of the foundation’s giving continues the push for school choice that Dick and Betsy DeVos have backed for more than a decade. In 2002, the foundation gave $390,000 to Choices for Children, a think tank formed by Betsy DeVos to promote school choice.
The think tank, which Dick DeVos said no longer is in operation, was started after the failure of a 2000 ballot measure that would have allowed public dollars to be used for vouchers students could use at private schools.
Dick DeVos, then president of Amway Corp., led the effort to get the ballot measure passed, co-chairing the Kids First! Yes! campaign. Betsy DeVos left her job as chairwoman of the state Republican Party earlier that year after then-Gov. John Engler, also a Republican, opposed putting the voucher measure on the ballot. The DeVoses contributed more than $500,000 to the Kids First! Yes! campaign.
Since he began his run for governor, Dick DeVos says he still believes in school vouchers but won’t pursue the idea because voters soundly defeated the ballot proposal.
Article Ommitted from The Grand Rapids Press Version
“We have thousands of parents who every year are looking for some help to try to send their child to a school that is going to work better for their child, but which they cannot afford themselves,” he said.
The couple also started the Great Lakes Education Project, a political action committee that contributes to candidates who support school choice.
The foundation continues to contribute millions of dollars to groups that support school choice, private schools or scholarships used at private schools.
The American Education Reform Council, a school choice advocacy group in Wisconsin, got $101,000 over the three years, while the Michigan Association of Public School Academies, a Lansing-based group that represents charter schools, got $25,000.
Besides the $978,000 that went to the Education Freedom Fund for private school scholarships, the foundation also gave $12,950 to the Hugh Michael Beahan Foundation, which provides scholarships for students attending St. Andrew’s School in Grand Rapids.
It also provided $75,000 to Children First America, a national clearinghouse of information on privately funded voucher programs for low-income children based in Austin, Texas, and $25,000 to Florida P.R.I.D.E, a Tampa-based group that provides information about school choice in Florida.
Several Detroit charter schools or groups that run charter schools received contributions, including New Urban Living, which got $179,000. The nonprofit group manages University Preparatory Academy in Detroit.
Rehoboth Christian School, founded in Minnesota by the Christian Reformed Church as a boarding school for Native American students, got $250,000.
Colleges also did well. The foundation gave $662,000 to higher education over three years, with nearly half the money going to Calvin College, Betsy DeVos’ alma mater in Grand Rapids.
Princeton University in New Jersey, which one of the DeVos children attends, got $53,500, while Davenport University in Grand Rapids, Grove City College in Grove City, Pa., Hope College in Holland and Thunderbird, The American School of International Management in Glendale, Ariz., each got at least $50,000.
Among the charities that received money from the foundation, many were faith-based groups that focused on children, such as Kids Hope USA, which got $300,000 over three years to help link mentors from churches with schools and students.
The foundation also gave $525,000 to Little Star Inc., an Aspen, Colo.-based group headed by former tennis star Andrea Jaeger that helps children with cancer and other life-threatening diseases, or those who are at risk or abused.
Of the more than $1.9 million that went to churches or to organizations promoting religion, churches got nearly $600,000, including $431,000 for Mars Hill Baptist Church in Grandville.
Related posts:
- DeVos, Granholm pumping millions into race
- DeVos tells students of ‘hope problem’
- National Watchdog Organization Warns Michigan Churches about Partisan Election Materials
- Dick and Betsy DeVos Supporting the School Vouchers in Michigan and across the United States
- Democrats question DeVos’ commitment
