With the Senate’s confirmation this month of Diane Ravitch as assistant secretary for educational research and improvement and Jeffrey C. Martin as general counsel, Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander has only three slots to fill to complete his management team.
Both Ms. Ravitch, an adjunct professor of history and education at Columbia University’s Teachers College, and Mr. Martin, a Washington lawyer, were approved by the Senate on voice votes and without hearings or controversy.
In one of her first actions upon taking office, Ms. Ravitch named Eunice Henderson, an oeri staff member since the agency’s inception, as her chief of staff.
President Bush has also nominated Donald Laidlaw, an executive with the International Business Machines Corporation, to be the department’s deputy undersecretary for management. The Senate is expected to take up the nomination next month.
At a June luncheon with reporters, Mr. Alexander said he had also sent to the White House his recommendations for filling the posts of assistant secretary for legislation, deputy undersecretary for intergovernmental and interagency affairs, and assistant secretary for postsecondary education.
As of last week, no nominations had been announced, but sources say Mr. Alexander has tapped Mayor William Hudnut of Indianapolis for the intergovernmental affairs post; Carolynn Reid-Wallace, a former vice chancellor of City University of New York, for the postsecondary position; and Robert Okun, a veteran Congressional aide, for the legislative post.
Mr. Okun resigned in May as executive director of the House Republican Conference to work as a consultant for Deputy Secretary David T. Kearns.
