Josh Venable
<p>=</p><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:rNnTXYENjT0J:blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2017/02/a_look_at_staffing_betsy_devos.html</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>What's Up With the Staffing of Betsy DeVos' Education Department</b></div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">By Alyson Klein on February 15, 2017 7:39 AM</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
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</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">When brand-new U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos was selected to lead the Education Department, her fans and detractors agreed on one thing: It would be really important to see who she put in other key roles, including the deputy secretary and assistant secretaries that oversee policy, innovation, civil rights, K-12 education, and more.</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">That's partly because DeVos, a billionaire GOP donor and school choice advocate, comes from a nontraditional background. Unlike nearly every past education secretary, she's never worked professionally in federal or state government, for a school district, or at a university.</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">And while her supporters say she has deep knowledge when it comes to vouchers, charter schools, and other forms of choice, she appeared confused during her confirmation hearing about other areas of education policy, including special education. That could make staffing all the more important.</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">So far, key roles haven't been filled. To be sure, it's still early going—the secretary herself has been on the job for just over a week. And a deputy could be named sometime soon. (Allan Hubbard, who worked on economic issues under President George W. Bush, is said to be a top candidate for the deputy role, typically the No. 2 position at the department.)</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"I don't think anyone should be alarmed at the speed, but given the process or lack thereof we've seen administration-wide and the contentiousness of DeVos' confirmation it puts a premium on getting this next wave of hiring absolutely right," said Andy Smarick, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, which has received funding from DeVos' family foundation. "If it's slow but smart, everyone will be happy. If it's slow and clunky, then there are going to be big concerns."</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Some Republican education policy experts including those who have worked in past GOP administrations, for GOP education leaders on Capitol Hill, or in states are reticent to jump into jobs in President Donald Trump's Education Department.</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">These observers, who declined to speak for attribution given the sensitivity of the subject, worry that the administration has yet to find its organizational footing, citing reports of a chaotic governing process at the White House. Others aren't sure they want to put in long hours for a secretary with a narrow area of focus who is already facing serious backlash among educators. And a few fear DeVos may not stick around long.</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">One person who the Trump team had reached out to said of DeVos. "She doesn't have a vision" beyond vouchers, the Republican said. "I don't want to go in not knowing what the full vision is."</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">And another Republican who had mulled joining the administration said, "There's a lot of anxiety around what this administration is going to bring, and some people may think it's pretty risky to go into these roles ... There's a lot of speculation about how long DeVos is going to last. Potential staff may question whether it's worth the risk, whether taking a job for this secretary could cause collateral damage to reputations and future opportunities in education."</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">For now, the list of names of folks on the "landing team"—the initial group of policy staffers—that has been circulated to civil servants at the department is heavy on folks whose background is primarily in politics or communications, including more than a half-dozen Trump campaign staffers, state GOP party staffers, and Washington, D.C.-based communications professionals. </span></div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>There aren't as many whose background is primarily education policy as opposed to politics or who have deep experience at a state education agency or school district.</b></div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Among the exceptions: Ebony Lee, who served at the department during the Bush administration and then worked on charter policy at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Michael Brickman has worked in both politics (as the communications director for the Iowa Republican Party) and policy (as a policy adviser to Gov. Scott Walker, R-Wis. and staffer at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute)</span>.<b> Jim Manning, </b>who worked in the department during the Bush administration, has a track record in government.<b> </b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Josh Venable</b>, who has played a key role in the transition, has primarily worked in politics, mostly in DeVos' home state of Michigan, but spent almost two years as the national director of advocacy and legislation at the Foundation for Educational Excellence, started by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. Another hire, Andrew Kossack, also did a seven month stint at FEE, and worked in education and government roles in Indiana, including as a deputy chief of staff to the state chief, Tony Bennett, and as an education aide to governor-turned-vice-president Mike Pence. </span></div><p>==</p><p>
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The vast majority of “beachhead” officials within the Education Department have close connections to the right-wing “education reform” media echo chamber bankrolled by billionaires and private corporations -- but little to no experience in the classroom.</p>
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This list includes at least four staffers who have previously worked for education privatization groups led by DeVos in some capacity: Michael Frendewey, a communications staffer at American Federation for Children, which was founded by DeVos and led by until her nomination; and<span style=" background-color: #FFF200;"> Andrew Kossack,<b> Josh Venable,</b> and Neil Ruddock, all former staffers of Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education, which counted DeVos as a board member until her nomination.</span></p>
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The longer list of staffers who come from the dark-money “education reform” echo chamber includes Jason Botel, of the DeVos-affiliated Maryland Campaign for Achievement Now; Michael Brickman, a former staffer with the Fordham Institute and Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI); Gillum Ferguson, a former staffer for conservative outlets Opportunity Lives and The Washington Free Beacon; Alexandra Hudson, who has written education policy pieces at conservative outlets and think tanks like The Heartland Institute, The Federalist, and The Weekly Standard and recently worked as an education policy analyst for the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (part of the State Policy Network of right-wing think tanks); Lauren Rigas of the American Conservative Union and the American Enterprise Institute; and Patrick Shaheen, a former staffer at the Koch brothers’ Americans for Prosperity.</p>