You're not being paranoid; Betsy DeVos does want to kneecap public education (I've begun a series on her 2-tier system if you want to check it out; it starts here: https://medium.com/@slhale/why-is-betsy-devos-stiffing-the-working-and-middle-classes-f8a11d3ba221 ).

DeVos doesn't simply want to privatize education. Her 2 tiers aren't public vs. private; they are education for the working and middle class vs. education for the wealthy.

Here's how this plays out with her COVID decree:

Working class and most middle class parents will be forced to send their children back to public schools, which are presently ill-equipped to provide a safe, effective learning environment; this category includes most charter schools, which DeVos had initially championed and has now abandoned. Fundamentalist and some conservative middle class parents will send their kids to mediocre "Christian academies" and mercenary private schools (the K-12 equivalent of the predatory proprietary vocational colleges that DeVos loves). These schools won't be much more protective than the public schools; in fact they may be even more dangerous since there is such little regulation over their daily activities--even less than with public schools (and thanks to the CDC, there are no real rules for opening public schools, just a series of toothless guidelines). But that’s no problem for DeVos / Trump. Our children are being sacrificed not only to promote a quick-fix economic bump so Trump can be re-elected; they’re collateral damage in DeVos’s war on the working and middle class.

The wealthy will send their kids to expensive private schools that provide both a safe environment and the opportunity to establish bonds with other wealthy kids, not to mention enhanced odds for getting into an expensive private college. And from there, the inequities perpetuate themselves. Obla-di, obla-da.

Even if COVID-19 were eliminated from the earth at the end of 2021, the long term effects of DeVos / Trump on public education may last for decades.