A Dallas-based executive- recruitment company that will employ Linus Wright when he leaves the Education Department is attempting to harness the attention-getting value of the undersecretary’s title while he still has it.
G.S. Schwartz & Co., a public-relations firm, has been contacting journalists to offer interviews with Mr. Wright. Its representative, Roberta Chopp, acknowledged that her client is a recruitment firm that has hired the former Dallas school superintendent to launch its efforts in the education field.
Mr. Wright said recently that he would begin his new job Feb. 1 and that he had already agreed to work for Paul R. Ray, Inc. when he was tapped for the undersecretary’s post.
Ms. Chopp said one related theme Mr. Wright plans to emphasize in interviews is his view that potential educational managers should have a background in business as well as, or instead of, academic experience. He thinks managers with that background could, for example, aid in bringing costs down at higher-education institutions, she said.
President Reagan last week appointed four people to top Education Department posts under a special authority that does not subject them to Congressional confirmation.
All four--Patrick Pizzella, deputy undersecretary for management; Michelle Easton, deputy undersecretary for intergovernmental and interagency affairs; Charles E.M. Kolb, deputy undersecretary for planning, budget, and evaluation; and Kenneth D. Whitehead, assistant secretary for postsecondary education--had been serving in the positions on an acting basis.
Their nominations had been forwarded to the Senate but were not acted upon before the 100th Congress adjourned. Officials appointed during a Congressional recess can serve until the end of the next session, even if the Senate refuses to confirm them.
However, the White House asked all recess appointees to submit resignations that President-elect George Bush can accept or reject, and Education Department sources said at least two of the four appointees will not stay on.
Conspicuous by her absence from the list is Patricia M. Hines, whose appointment to head the office of educational research and improvement on an acting basis was controversial among researchers and lawmakers.
She had not been working at oeri, but was appointed its deputy assistant secretary for policy and planning when she was named acting assistant secretary. She was not nominated for Senate consideration.--jm
