We finally have some good news the area of appointments to the U.S. Department of Education. One troubling appointment has been nixed because of her support for Common Core.
Politico reported this morning:
Well, the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education may still be up for grabs after the Trump administration recently reversed plans to nominate New Mexico Education Secretary Hanna Skandera for the assistant secretary job, POLITICO has learned. The administration’s decision to pull back an offer came after Republicans raised concerns about Skandera’s support for the Common Core standards. The offer appears to have been extended before Hill Republicans were consulted.
“About a dozen Republican offices were skeptical that they could ever vote yes” on Skandera because of her embrace of the standards, said a senior GOP aide. Those English and math standards are reviled by conservatives as a symbol of federal overreach. Republicans also weren’t interested in another fight over an education nominee after Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ bruising confirmation process. Skandera, who sits on the governing board for the Common Core-aligned PARCC test, declined to comment.
Hanna Skandera was not a welcome nominee for those of us who are opposed to Common Core. We wonder when President Trump was going to act on his opposition to the standards, and we are still waiting.
Will he finally appoint someone to the the Department who actually opposes Common Core and wants to shrink the Federal role in education? Or will he continue to make the Department in Jeb Bush’s image?
While this is great news with DeVos in office our children and education is still under attack. I am sure they will dig up someone that sits on the same side of the fence as DeVos but has no public record to interfere with the nomination. I truly believe if this woman had not made her support for Common Core so public she would have gotten the job.