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Who Donald Trump chooses to be his secretary of education will send powerful signals as to what the role of the U.S. Department of Education will be in a Trump presidency.
One intriguing name that has surfaced in recent days to head the department is Michelle Rhee, the former controversial chancellor of the District of Columbia Public Schools and founder of StudentsFirst, the advocacy group she founded that promoted a range of school reforms in numerous states, including an expansion of charter schools. Earlier this year it merged with the group 50Can. Trump is planning to meet with Rhee on Saturday in New Jersey, according to news reports in the Sacramento Bee and elsewhere..
Rhee has been based in California for the past several years, since marrying Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson. She stepped down as head of StudentsFirst in 2014. In general, she has had an adversarial relationship with teachers unions, in part because of her firing of hundreds of teachers in DC schools, her efforts to reform teacher tenure, and her promotion of linking teacher evaluations to the test scores of their students. She has also been a strong proponent of charter schools, and has endorsed the notion of issuing tax-supported vouchers that could be used for tuition at private schools.
Other candidates being mentioned are Rep. Luke Messer, R-Ind., and Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin. Williamson (Bill) Evers of the Hoover Institution is reportedly on Trump’s education transition team, and in some reports, like this one in Education Week and another in the New York Times, is listed as a possible secretary.
Evers, whom Trump named to his transition team on education in September, has been a resident scholar and research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University since 1988. In 2007-08 he served as assistant secretary of the Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development in the U.S. Department of Education under President George W. Bush. He also served as an education advisor to Sen. John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign.
After gaining prominence in leading a successful fight to replace the math curriculum in Palo Alto, then-Gov. Pete Wilson appointed Evers to the state commission that wrote the state’s math standards in 1997. A vociferous critic of the Common Core math standards, he was named by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to a state commission evaluating the Common Core in 2010.
What seems certain is that the new secretary will not exercise anywhere near the influence that former Secretary of Education Arne Duncan did during his nearly eight years as head of the department during the Obama administration.
The new secretary’s role will be radically circumscribed by the Every Student Succeeds Act approved by Congress last fall. The law replaces the No Child Left Behind law of 2002, and devolves much more decision-making powers to the states.
In numerous places the new federal law explicitly limits the powers of the secretary, especially when it comes to telling states, or even exercising his or her influence, regarding what they can or cannot do in numerous areas, most notably in testing, curriculum and instruction.
Trump has also advocated returning more authority over education to the states and local districts and creating a $20 billion school choice program providing tuition vouchers for low-income students to attend the public, private or charter school of their choice.
Part-time instructors, many who work for decades off the tenure track and at a lower pay rate, have been called “apprentices to nowhere.”
A bill to mandate use of the method will not advance in the Legislature this year in the face of teachers union opposition.
Nearly a third of the 930 districts statewide that reported data had a higher rate of chronic absenteeism in 2022-23 than the year before.
The move puts the fate of AB 2222 in question, but supporters insist that there is room to negotiate changes that can help tackle the state’s literacy crisis.
Comments (8)
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el 7 years ago7 years ago
“Intriguing”? If you say so.
StudentsFirst was about aggrandizing Rhee and raising money had nothing to do with actually improving education for kids. You’ll note it was not successful enough to survive, nor did she stay with it.
Greg Goodknight 7 years ago7 years ago
Michelle Rhee is a self-promoter; her husband Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, a staunch Democrat, has also had his share of scandal, while Williamson Evers would be a change. A real change whose time has come, I hope.
Herb Neu 7 years ago7 years ago
So it looks like our education system is headed toward total privatization… further steps towards a patriarchal autocracy.
Maya 7 years ago7 years ago
Rhee would be perfect. I am Asian, My sister in law is Hispanic. We voted Trump but CNN and others like to treat racial groups as a monolith. If Rhee has the qualifications, she will be perfect.
Aileen 7 years ago7 years ago
I’m a retired teacher who did not vote for trump. However I absolutely support Michelle Rhee for Secretary of Education. She puts students first as stated in her organization. She is not afraid to tackle the important issues to improve the educational experience for all students. Teacher tenure is definitely an issue which needs to be addressed.
Barbara Nemko 7 years ago7 years ago
Michelle Rhee is divisive and did nothing that actually improved education in DC, but she did manage to terrify teachers and principals, leading to a cheating scandal over the administration of standardized tests. She would be a terrible choice.
Replies
Aileen 7 years ago7 years ago
the testing scandal was investigated and the results showed no evidence of cheating. Need to do your due dillegence before making accusations.
Ted 7 years ago7 years ago
Sorry, but according to Diane Ravitch's blog (and consistent with other things I have read), the assertion that there was no evidence of cheating is not correct: "Eventually, the allegations were investigated by the DC Inspector General, who decided not to look at the erasure analysis or to interview many people. It was not the kind of full-scale investigation carried out in Atlanta by professionals. The DC Inspector General decided the cheating, if it … Read More
Sorry, but according to Diane Ravitch’s blog (and consistent with other things I have read), the assertion that there was no evidence of cheating is not correct: “Eventually, the allegations were investigated by the DC Inspector General, who decided not to look at the erasure analysis or to interview many people. It was not the kind of full-scale investigation carried out in Atlanta by professionals. The DC Inspector General decided the cheating, if it happened, was not widespread.
This was confirmed by the Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Education.”