But DeVos’s decision to resign as secretary of education after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and subsequent criticisms of Trump’s mental state had pushed her off many observers’ lists of front runners.

Donald Trump could have picked from a range of fire-breathing state superintendents, policy wonks or former governors to lead an Education Department he wants to abolish. But the president-elect tapped a billionaire donor with no classroom experience to manage federal education policy.