The Washington Post reported that the government is spending about $1 million per month for Betsy DeVos’s security.
How many people are assigned to protect her?
The government already owns the vehicles.
Assume the full amount is the cost of personnel.
Assume that a security guard earns $48,000 per year.
One month of his or her time is $4,000.
How many security guards are protecting her?
This is not a trick question.
Show your work.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The Marshals Service is hiring nearly two dozen people to guard her, according to a person briefed on the arrangements, who was not authorized to speak publicly. The jobs include 20 positions at the GS-13 level ($95,000-$123,000 annual salary, depending on experience), and 2 positions at the GS-14 level ($112,000 to $146,000 annual salary).
Previous education secretaries have been protected by a team of department employees, many of whom were Secret Service veterans. I read that this security team is still on the DOE’s payroll and they seem to be just sitting around now.
A U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that she had received more threats than previous education secretaries.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/the-cost-of-betsy-devoss-security-detail-1-million-per-month/2017/04/07/efa01488-1ade-11e7-9887-1a5314b56a08_story.html?utm_term=.55cd6f3adf05
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That’s a rather large security detail, don’t you think?
And far better paid than teachers.
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About 24 bodyguards. Sounds like she’s had some very serious threats. I wonder how many the average security details were.
Rule of thumb: the more bodyguards, the more of an unpopular tyrant they are.
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Lloyd,
Do you think they travel in a bus or a caravan? Does she have 8 bodyguards in each shift? 10?
They must be falling over each other.
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There are probably three 8-hour shifts to cover each 24-hour day with 8 to 10 bodyguards per shift. If the average annual bodyguard pay is $100k, that means each day costs about $7k (my estimate and it could be low), just in pay, a day to cover the three shifts.
And I wonder if that includes every member of her family. Do they get bodyguards too?
From what I’ver read about this type of security, there has to be an advance team that goes to every location before someone like Betsy arrives so security is in place before she gets there, and all the best spots for a trained sniper are covered to a distance of at least a mile away from where the target is exposed and out in the open.
JFK was killed be a sniper (maybe two snipers were involved) with a long-distance shot. There might even be a bomb-sniffing dog team involved.
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Not understanding the logic (ha ha) of this. USA does not have a set “security allowance” ? Trump should pay the extra because he appointed her…..or is Congress complicit because they confirmed her? Maybe all the Congress folks who voted yes should make sure the monies come from their state?
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Why does Betsy DeVos need security? Has any previous Secretary of Education had security provided by tax payers? That money should be spent on childrens’ education!!!!
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School choice advocates guard the Secretary, of course. They used to work at places like El Camino Charter High, here in Los Angeles. They fly first class and order $200 bottles of wine. They get confused between their personal and taxpayer funded credit cards. I’m surprised you didn’t know.
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There is just one guy, but he’s really, really good.
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DeVos is really just a lobbyist –for the TeaParty/Republicans, privatizers, parochial schools, fundamentalist Christians and her billionaire cronies– so she should be paying us instead of sucking at the teat of the government that she says “sucks.”
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Wonder if DeVoodoo prays for her redemption when she goes to church? Those secret service people surrounded her must truly make her FEEL SUPERIOR. After all, she thinks she is a chosen one. SAD.
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Meant “surrounding her…”
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Considering DeVos’ chosen status, I would expect God to protect her safety in the embodiment of His Kingdom on Earth.
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She is the custodian of a bankful of voucher money and needs to have armed guards, She should travel ini an armoured vehicle.
I am not really kidding having read this incredible post from Mercedes Schneider. Vouchers are cash.
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DeVos could obtain an armored vehicle from her brother.
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A fleet of them.
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You should never piss off the grizzly bears. We are now paying, in the cost of her security, for unleashing the wrath of ursa horribilis
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Isn’t the more important question, why? A taxpaying public, that foots the bill to prop up the regime of oligarchs, is the way that a ruling class (America’s richest 0.1%), operates.
Didn’t Obama cause harm in his selection of King and Duncan, who were puppets of the rich? Is the anger, directed at DeVos, based on her obvious wealth and lack of qualifications? Maybe the nation is approaching the inevitable tipping point of action, in response to the inequality of income and opportunity.
How much longer can the public, ignore the loss of American democracy, at the hands of Robert Mercer, Bill Gates and the Koch Brothers?
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Protests follow DeVos at nearly every public appearance. Since this woman has no clue about the real world, I am sure she sees the protesters as dangerous. While I am sure like any public official there might be some threats from a few disturbed individuals, but enough to justify millions for security does not make sense. We can’t forget that Pence has some influence in the Trump world, and having seen what Pence did as a congressman and governor of Indiana, I would not put it past him to concoct this idea to make the anti-DeVos people look bad, or even dangerous.
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The oligarchs’ fear, of the public, is essential to either a regime change or, the crack down on dissidents that will provoke the public’s takeover of the government, returning it to one of the people, by the people and for the people.
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Advice to DeVos
A) Return to Michigan.
B) Stay away from public schools.
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When one purchases a small electric appliance now it often gives safety instructions that make you go “duh- who would ever do that anyway?” As I would tell my students the warning is there because somebody did that stupid thing in the first place. I’m feeling that America is seeing lots of “duh” events. Common sense is lost? Or folks good at finding loopholes……
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She’s carrying a thumb drive containing all the longitudinal files of every child K-12 child. That includes social, emotional behavioral, psychometric and cognitive data. She’s sharing it with Blackwater, Goldman Sacks, and all the other creeps looking to profile kids into their futures of fun. https://wrenchinthegears.com/2017/04/
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Who knew swamp creatures would be so expensive to maintain?
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Who is protecting our students from Mrs. DeVos?
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