After hearing that Betsy DeVos was likely to become one of the most influential people in America’s education system, I decided to do some digging.

I wanted to know who she was, what she believed in and what she was going to do with the massive responsibility she would be handed if she were appointed.

DeVos is a political activist for school choice and a philanthropist. She is interested in mental health and clean energy, which excited me.

I was behind her on the idea that families should be able to choose the type of school they attend, until I read a little more into her ideas, because I know every child is different. Although she has degrees in business and political science, she still doesn’t qualify for the job.

DeVos has never provided a service to students. She has never been in a school, talked to kids and faculty, met with school boards or found solutions to their problems.

She doesn’t understand how closing public schools affects social and economic justice.

The U.S. Department of Education stated that about 90 percent of grade school students are enrolled in public schools.

She pulled millions of dollars of funding from public schools in Michigan to support private schools.

She has stated that people should just move if they want their kid to attend a better school, as though homes are cheap and easy to come by, and people choose to place their children at failing schools.

She worked against teachers’ unions that empower our nation’s educators. I still have her incompetency to address, and it is the biggest issue I have.

DeVos can’t know what our school system needs when she’s never been a part of it. Our decision makers should be able to draw primarily from their own experiences.

She never attended a public school or college, and her kids went to private schools, so she has never experienced the frustration of sending her kids to an underfunded, overcrowded school setting, or been in one herself.

She never had to take out a student loan, nor did anyone in her family. But she will make decisions for those of us who depend on them to pay for tuition and, if you are like me, to pay bills throughout the semester.

She hasn’t done research in education. She hasn’t watched a student struggle in the classroom because he or she has an undiagnosed disorder.

She hasn’t seen the reality of special needs students being bussed across town to attend a school that meets their needs.

She doesn’t know what it means to us when we have panic attacks because we owe a few hundred dollars after our loans hit our accounts and we have no idea how we will pay it. She doesn’t know what it is like to have your credit score ruined when you cannot find a job to pay off your loans after graduation.

She doesn’t know what it is like to take classes with textbooks that are more than a decade old or be in classes where the teachers put everything in a PowerPoint because they know their students can’t afford the book. She will never get it.

She couldn’t be a principal, school board member, superintendent or elementary school teacher. Why should someone who doesn’t understand our needs and has no experience be in charge of education?

She shouldn’t.