The current Secretary of Education.
John B. King, Jr. is the secretary of education, a position he assumed upon Senate confirmation on March 14, 2016. In tapping him to lead the U.S. Department of Education, President Obama called Dr. King "an exceptionally talented educator," citing his commitment to "preparing every child for success" and his lifelong dedication to education as a teacher, principal, and leader of schools and school systems....
...Before becoming secretary, Dr. King served since January 2015 at the Department as principal senior advisor. In that role, he carried out the duties of the deputy secretary, overseeing all preschool-through-12th-grade education policies, programs, and strategic initiatives, as well as the operations of the Department....
...Prior to his arrival at the Department, Dr. King served since 2011 as the commissioner of education for the state of New York. In that role, he served as chief executive officer of the State Education Department and as president of the University of the State of New York, overseeing the state's elementary and secondary schools (serving 3.1 million students), public, independent and proprietary colleges and universities, libraries, museums, and numerous other educational institutions....
...As commissioner of education, Dr. King worked with the Board of Regents to pursue an ambitious education improvement agenda. During his tenure, New York State was a national leader in many facets of education: investing in high-quality early learning; raising standards for teaching and learning; supporting teachers and school leaders through strong professional development, access to rich instructional resources, and innovative educator career ladder models; expanding career and technical education in high-demand fields; and increasing educational opportunity for students in the highest-need communities....
...Prior to his appointment as senior deputy commissioner at the New York State Education Department in 2009, Dr. King served as a managing director with Uncommon Schools, a non-profit charter management organization that operates some of the highest-performing urban public schools in New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. Earlier in his career, Dr. King was a co-founder and co-director for curriculum and instruction of Roxbury (Massachusetts) Preparatory Charter School. Under his leadership, Roxbury Prep became one of the highest-performing urban middle schools in the state, closed the racial achievement gap, and outperformed not only the Boston district schools but also schools in the city's affluent suburbs. Dr. King began his career in education teaching high school social studies in San Juan, Puerto Rico and Boston, Massachusetts...
She is Bachelors of Arts degree in business administration and political science. The only experience she has with education is as a philathorpist interested in turning $69.4 billion Department of Education budget (click here) in private funding to turn a profit.
She is a hatchet woman and that is all she is.
...Perhaps most importantly, (click here) Mrs. DeVos pursues reform through a variety of nonprofit roles. She is chairman of the Dick and Betsy DeVos Family Foundation, and her charitable interests range widely. She is a member of several national and local boards, including the DeVos Institute for Arts Management at the Kennedy Center, Mars Hill Bible Church, Kids Hope USA, and the Foundation for Excellence in Education. She is perhaps best known as a leading advocate for the educational-choice movement. To that end, she serves as chairman of the American Federation for Children (AFC) and the Alliance for School Choice.
Philanthropy recently spoke with Mrs. DeVos about her work in educational reform generally, and school choice specifically.
PHILANTHROPY: It’s been more than 50 years since Milton Friedman wrote “The Role of Government in Education,” which made the first principled case for school choice. It’s coming up on 25 years since Wisconsin instituted the nation’s first private-school voucher program in Milwaukee. So, how do you feel about progress to date?
MRS. DEVOS: Well, I’ve never been more optimistic. Today there are about 250,000 students in 33 publicly funded, private-choice programs in 17 states and the District of Columbia. The movement’s growth is accelerating. Within the last year, the number of students in educational-choice programs grew by about 40,000. In 2012, we saw new programs in Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Mississippi, and New Hampshire, and expanded programs in Arizona, Florida, Louisiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. In 2011, Indiana passed a major new statewide voucher program, which is only in its second academic year and is already enrolling nearly 10,000 children. We conducted polling in five states, and found educational choice enjoyed enormous popularity, especially among Latinos....
