Democrats critical of Betsy DeVos, Donald Trump’s choice for education secretary, find plenty of reasons to pillory the school-choice advocate and Republican donor. Plans to improve equal opportunity in public education—growing public charter schools and voucher programs, and testing district teachers—terrify teachers’ unions, who are significant patrons of the Democratic party. And she has invested her ample personal wealth in philanthropic support of school choice organizations and conservative causes. DeVos’s distinctions, offensive as they are to Democrats in Congress and writers at Newsweek, herald a welcome change to those for whom education reform in service to the American poor is a daily fight.

Eva Moskowitz founded the Success Academy Charter Schools, a growing network of 41 high-scoring New York City schools that mainly serve minority students from low-income families, a national model for inner-city public charters—and a lightning rod for New York City mayor Bill de Blasio, a hardline union ally and Moskowitz’s repeat political foe.