The election of Donald Trump has fundamentally shaken the education establishment. The teachers’ unions went all-in on Hillary Clinton, and most education “reformers” were rooting for her as well. Trump’s nomination of Betsy DeVos for secretary of education left the unions apoplectic and reformers scratching their heads. On the one hand, DeVos might be the most school choice-friendly secretary of education in history. On the other, many centrist reformers feel like she’s not quite one of them.

And that’s for the best. DeVos stands at a crossroads, and the path she chooses will determine whether her tenure will transform or significantly set back the cause of expanding choice and opportunity. Will she govern as a principled conservative, respecting the limits of the federal role and relying on persuasion to make her case? Or will she govern like the “conservative” mirror image of her Obama administration predecessors?