Romney Names Education Policy Advisers
Presumed GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney's campaign has released a list of people who are advising the campaign on education issues, including a former U.S. Secretary of Education and a current state schools chief.
Serving as Rommey's K-12 committee co-chairs will be Nina S. Rees, a former assistant deputy secretary for innovation and improvement at the U.S. Department of Education and currently the senior vice president for strategic initiatives at Knowledge Universe; and Martin R. West, an assistant professor of education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and executive editor of Education Next.
Other committee members include Rod Paige, former secretary of education under President George W. Bush; Robert M. Costrell, a former education advisor to Romney when the candidate was governor of Massachusetts; Grover J. "Russ" Whitehurst, the former head of the U.S. Institute of Education Sciences and the director of the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution; and Tom Luna, the Idaho superintendent of public instruction and president of Council of Chief State School Officers.
Missing from the list is former U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, who was listed as an adviser to the campaign back in March.
UPDATE: Spellings told Alyson that she decided not to serve on Romney's education task force because of her work as a key education policy strategist at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber has been "outspoken about a variety of policies," she said. (Those who follow Congress probably remember that the Chamber came out against two bills reauthorizing the No Child Left Behind Act because they weren't strong enough on accountability.) Spellings remains a Romney fan, calling him "one of the best governors in the country on education."
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