Federal

Advisers Take Public Roles in Campaigns

By Alyson Klein — August 12, 2008 8 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

It’s become a familiar sight for education policy mavens this election season: panel discussions, in Washington and elsewhere, hashing out the presumptive presidential nominees’ differences on performance pay for teachers, private school vouchers, and other reliable topics of debate.

But the candidates themselves haven’t appeared at these events—it’s been their surrogates, experts who are helping to craft education plans for Sen. John McCain or Sen. Barack Obama.

Such advisers, whether paid staff members or volunteers, help send signals on the policy directions their candidates would pursue if elected to the White House.

And successful candidates often tap campaign aides to serve in their administrations. U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings was a key member of President Bush’s education team during his 2000 campaign. She worked as White House domestic-policy adviser in Mr. Bush’s first term before moving into her Cabinet post for his second.

“I think advisers matter, especially in this environment, where neither candidate is going to have a lot of time or a lot interest in getting into the details on education,” said Michael J. Petrilli, a vice president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a Washington think tank, who was a political appointee in the Department of Education during Mr. Bush’s first term.

“Who a candidate surrounds himself with … can be a very good window” on which policies he’s likely to pursue, Mr. Petrilli said.

Two Camps?

But Andrew J. Rotherham, a co-director of Education Sector, another Washington research organization, who is independently working with the campaign of Sen. Obama, cautioned that while advisers can make recommendations, it is ultimately senior campaign officials—and the candidate—who develop proposals.

“It’s brainstorming and advice-giving. The role of advisers is often overstated,” said Mr. Rotherham, who advised Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York in her bid for the Democratic nomination this year.

Lisa Graham Keegan, a former state superintendent in Sen. McCain’s home state, Arizona, has been the presumptive Republican standard-bearer’s most visible surrogate on education issues.

Observers say much of Mr. McCain’s education platform—which includes expanding private school vouchers that could be used at religious schools, promoting online education as a way of broadening school choice, and allowing principals to determine which teachers in their schools would be eligible for performance-based bonus pay—reflects policies that Ms. Keegan advocated both as a state schools chief and as the chief executive officer of the Education Leaders Council, a coalition of conservative-leaning education officials.

Campaign 2008 Education Advisers For Sen. Barack Obama

Photograph by Ben Margot/AP - File

Christopher F. Edley—Dean of the University of California, Berkeley, law school since 2004. He served as a special counsel to President Clinton, working on affirmative action issues, and was a member of the Aspen Institute’s Commission on No Child Left Behind, which issued 75 recommendations for overhauling the federal education law. Those included tying teacher quality to student-achievement data and calling on the National Assessement Governing Board to craft voluntary national standards and tests.

Christopher F. Edley—Dean of the University of California, Berkeley, law school since 2004. He served as a special counsel to President Clinton, working on affirmative action issues, and was a member of the Aspen Institute’s Commission on No Child Left Behind, which issued 75 recommendations for overhauling the federal education law. Those included tying teacher quality to student-achievement data and calling on the National Assessement Governing Board to craft voluntary national standards and tests.

Mike Johnston—The principal of the Mapleton Expeditionary School of the Arts in Thornton, Colo., and a co-founder of New Leaders for New Schools. Sen. Obama visited the school in May to deliver a major speech on education policy.

Jon Schnur—Chief executive and co-founder in 2000 of New Leaders for New Schools, a New York Citybased nonprofit group that trains educators to serve as principals of struggling schools in high-need districts. He served as an education adviser to Vice President Al Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign.

Linda Darling-Hammond—An education professor at Stanford University who has focused on leadership training and teacherquality issues. She is an advocate for teacher residencies, which combine education courses with beefed-up field experiences.

SOURCE: Education Week

Sen. Obama, the Illinois Democrat who is set to formally become his party’s nominee later this month, has assembled a team of education advisers with a broad range of views, and has sent a variety of surrogates to debates and other events.

The diversity of perspectives among his advisers makes it hard to gauge how an Obama administration would address such thorny matters as the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act, some observers say.

“In Obama’s campaign, what we see is an inclusive and big-tent approach,” said Dianne M. Piché, the executive director of the Citizens’ Commission on Civil Rights, a Washington-based watchdog group. “He’s got advisers who are unrepentant cheerleaders for NCLB; he’s got advisers who are concerned about NCLB.”

Mr. Obama’s education advisers can be divided into two distinct camps, several observers said.

On one end of the spectrum are those whom Mr. Petrilli and others characterized as “fairly traditional liberal” types, who have made their mark in areas such as educational equity and civil rights. They include Linda Darling-Hammond, a professor of education at Stanford University, who has done extensive research on teacher quality, and Christopher F. Edley, the dean of the law school at the University of California, Berkeley, who worked on affirmative action issues in President Bill Clinton’s administration.

And then, Mr. Petrilli said, there is a “younger, thirtysomething crowd of school reformers,” including Jon Schnur and Michael Johnston, who co-founded New Leaders for New Schools, a New York City-based nonprofit that trains principals to serve in struggling schools, as well as Mr. Rotherham, who served as an education aide to President Clinton.

Uniting Democrats?

That contingent is more closely identified with the rise of charter schools and proposals to redesign the education system.

The makeup of the Obama team “suggests two very different ways of thinking about the challenges [facing schools] and tackling them,” said Frederick M. Hess, the director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington think tank that espouses free-market-based policy approaches. “For me, it’s hard to know exactly which way his administration would lean.”

Joe Williams, the executive director of Democrats for Education Reform, a New York City-based political action committee that supports Democratic candidates for local, state, and federal office, who has been in contact with some of Sen. Obama’s advisers, said that even those working within the campaign aren’t certain which of the two factions would be likely to dominate in an Obama administration.

Mr. Rotherham said the senator is considering all points of view, and then using the information to reach his own conclusions.

“Obama sort of draws on a bunch of sources and puts them into coherent” proposals, Mr. Rotherham said. “He follows a more independent path ... and isn’t especially beholden to any particular ideological viewpoint or constituency, which allows him to think through the issues like an adult.”

John I. Wilson, the executive director of the 3.2 million-member National Education Association, which has endorsed Sen. Obama for president, praised his choice of advisers, particularly Ms. Darling-Hammond and Mr. Edley, as well as Inez Tenenbaum, a former state schools chief in South Carolina.

“I think he’s tried to surround himself with people who will bring him solid research and scholarly advice,” Mr. Wilson said, even if they aren’t always in agreement with the teachers’ union.

Some Democrats hope that Sen. Obama’s education team may be positioned to help address the polarization that the NCLB law has caused among Democrats in Congress. Although the law was passed with big, bipartisan majorities in 2001, its accountability rules are controversial, and many Democrats contend it’s underfunded.

“I actually believe that the differences can be bridged with the right leadership and the right spirit of cooperation, … but the campaign is not quite there yet,” Ms. Piché said.

Arizona Connection

In Sen. McCain’s campaign, Ms. Keegan and F. Philip Handy, who chaired the Florida state board of education during Jeb Bush’s tenure as that state’s governor, are the top advisers on education, said Nancy Pfotenhauer, a senior policy adviser for the McCain campaign.

Campaign 2008 Education AdvisersFor Sen. John McCain

Photograph by Steve Cannon/AP - File

F. Philip Handy—Served as chairman of the Florida state board of education from 2001 to 2007. He supported the state’s performance-pay program and helped champion changes leading to a more seamless, K-20 education system.

F. Philip Handy—Served as chairman of the Florida state board of education from 2001 to 2007. He supported the state’s performance-pay program and helped champion changes leading to a more seamless, K-20 education system.

Lisa Graham Keegan—As Arizona’s superintendent of public instruction from 1995 to 2001, she was an outspoken proponent of school choice, tough academic standards, and state testing. Later, she was chief executive officer of the Education Leaders Council, a coalition of conservative-leaning education officials. She also advised Sen. McCain’s 2000 presidential campaign.

Jane Swift—As acting governor of Massachusetts from 2001 to 2003, she supported rigorous standards and high-stakes tests. She later served as a partner in Arcadia Partners, a venture-capital firm that invests in for-profit educational companies.

Virginia Walden-Ford—As the executive director of D.C. Parents for School Choice, she has helped advocate for the federally funded voucher program that allows parents in the nation’s capital to send their children to private schools, including religious schools.

SOURCE: Education Week

Mr. Handy remains closely associated with Gov. Bush’s education agenda in Florida, which included vouchers, performance-based teacher pay, and a system for grading schools according to their students’ performance on state tests.

Ms. Keegan has worked with Sen. McCain since her days as Arizona’s superintendent of public instruction, a position she held from 1995 to 2001, and also advised him during his 2000 bid for the presidency.

She has appeared on behalf of the campaign at a variety of events in and outside of Washington in recent months. During a forum on education and the campaign last month at the New America Foundation, a think tank in Washington, Ms. Keegan said that a group of about 15 McCain advisers initially reviews education proposals. The ideas are then vetted by a broader group of about 80 educators and other experts nationwide.

Mr. Wilson of the nea said that it is the union’s sense that Sen. McCain, whom he described as having been “awol on education most of his Senate career,” is relying almost solely on Ms. Keegan to craft his education policy.

Mr. Wilson said that if Sen. McCain were elected and tapped Ms. Keegan for a major position in the Education Department, the union would likely oppose her confirmation. He cited allegations of financial mismanagement during Ms. Keegan’s tenure at the helm of the Education Leaders Council.

Ms. Keegan left that position in 2004. An Education Department audit, released in January 2006, revealed that the organization “drew down and expended federal funds it was not entitled to.” In the 2003 fiscal year, it said, the elc overdrew its grant by $495,326, which the report blamed on inadequate controls within the organization. (“Audit Faults Spending by Leaders Council,” Feb. 15 and “Schools on Their Own With ‘Following the Leaders’ Work,” April 12, 2006.)

Some of the items questioned in the federal audit involved Ms. Keegan, such as charges for a conference at a Wyoming resort that appeared to be unrelated to the purposes of the grant.

Ms. Keegan said in an interview late last week that the audit “was blown out of proportion.”

“It was a very small audit issue. It wasn’t mismanagement,” Ms. Keegan said. “It was a learning experience, for sure.”

She said the Education Department last year settled the audit and paid grant money to the group, which is now called Following the Leaders.

Ms. Piché of the Citizens’ Commission on Civil Rights had praise for Ms. Keegan.

“Lisa is smart, she’s personable, she’s effective, she’s a great spokesperson for” Sen. McCain, she said. “In that sense, he’s picked a good adviser.”

A version of this article appeared in the August 13, 2008 edition of Education Week as Advisers Take Public Roles In Campaigns

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
School & District Management Webinar
Harnessing AI to Address Chronic Absenteeism in Schools
Learn how AI can help your district improve student attendance and boost academic outcomes.
Content provided by Panorama Education
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Science Webinar
Spark Minds, Reignite Students & Teachers: STEM’s Role in Supporting Presence and Engagement
Is your district struggling with chronic absenteeism? Discover how STEM can reignite students' and teachers' passion for learning.
Content provided by Project Lead The Way
Recruitment & Retention Webinar EdRecruiter 2025 Survey Results: The Outlook for Recruitment and Retention
See exclusive findings from EdWeek’s nationwide survey of K-12 job seekers and district HR professionals on recruitment, retention, and job satisfaction. 

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Federal 3 Ways Trump Can Weaken the Education Department Without Eliminating It
Trump's team can seek to whittle down the department's workforce, scrap guidance documents, and close offices.
4 min read
Then-Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump smiles at an election night watch party at the Palm Beach Convention Center, Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla.
President-elect Donald Trump smiles at an election night watch party at the Palm Beach Convention Center on Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. Trump pledged during the campaign to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education. A more plausible path could involve weakening the agency.
Evan Vucci/AP
Federal How Trump Can Hobble the Education Department Without Abolishing It
There is plenty the incoming administration can do to kneecap the main federal agency responsible for K-12 schools.
9 min read
Former President Donald Trump speaks as he arrives in New York on April 15, 2024.
President-elect Donald Trump speaks as he arrives in New York on April 15, 2024. Trump pledged on the campaign trail to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education in his second term.
Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via AP
Federal Opinion Closing the Education Department Is a Solution in Search of a Problem
There’s a bill in Congress seeking to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education. What do its supporters really want?
Jonas Zuckerman
4 min read
USA government confusion and United States politics problem and American federal legislation trouble as a national political symbol with 3D illustration elements.
iStock/Getty Images
Federal Can Immigration Agents Make Arrests and Carry Out Raids at Schools?
Current federal policy says schools are protected areas from immigration enforcement. That may soon change.
9 min read
A know-your-rights flyer rests on a table while immigration activist, Laura Mendoza, speaks to the Associated Press' reporter at The Resurrection Project offices in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood on June 19, 2019. From Los Angeles to Atlanta, advocates and attorneys have brought civil rights workshops to schools, churches, storefronts and consulates, tailoring their efforts on what to do if U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers show up at home or on the road.
A know-your-rights flyer rests on a table while immigration activist, Laura Mendoza, speaks to the Associated Press' reporter at The Resurrection Project offices in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood on June 19, 2019. Immigration advocates advise schools to inform families about their legal rights as uncertainty remains over how far-reaching immigration enforcement will go under a second Trump administration.
Amr Alfiky/AP