蜜桃影视

The Department of Education isn鈥檛 the only part of the federal government where former teachers and education advocates will have a role in the Biden administration.

At least half a dozen individuals recently appointed to positions in the White House include those with teaching experience and others who have worked with education-focused organizations. While several have most recently worked on the Biden-Harris campaign 鈥� and didn鈥檛 necessarily jump straight from the classroom into government 鈥� they鈥檒l still have direct knowledge of issues that matter to both teachers and parents.

The incoming White House staff, for example, includes Kaitlyn Hobbs Demers, who taught fifth grade in the Gwinnett County Public Schools in Georgia and spent 2013 and 2014 advising Teach for America 鈥渃orps members鈥� and interviewing future candidates. Demers has been appointed special assistant to the president and chief of staff for the Office of Legislative Affairs.

Corina Cortez, once a senior advisor at the National Education Association, will serve as special assistant to the president for presidential personnel. And Dani Durante, who will be the director for leadership and training, was previously the senior director of operations at OneGoal: Graduation, a nonprofit focused on college readiness, particularly for low-income students of color.

鈥淚 think it鈥檚 interesting to see appointees with education backgrounds,鈥� said Anne Hyslop, assistant director for policy development and government relations at the Alliance for Excellent Education and a former policy adviser at the U.S. Department of Education.鈥淭hat is experience, a point of view they鈥檒l be bringing with them that affects how they think about policy and the role education can play.鈥�

Charles Barone, the director of policy at Democrats for Education Reform, added that with former United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice, Biden鈥檚 pick to lead the Domestic Policy Council, 鈥渉aving no domestic policy experience, it makes some sense that they would lean to other hires having domestic policy experience, including education.鈥�

Hyslop noted that future first lady Jill Biden, a teacher, could also be playing a role in tapping those with education experience. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not far-fetched to imagine Dr. Biden may want to devote some of her time to education projects, given her career interests,鈥� she said.

Others, however, suggested the similarities in the resumes of Biden鈥檚 new hires could be more coincidental. Julia Martin, legislative director at Brustein and Manasevit, a Washington-based education law firm, said those who worked on Biden鈥檚 campaign and transition team are likely joining the administration for their more recent experience, rather than their connections to education issues.

Teach for America, she added, 鈥渉as been a stepping-stone for a lot of Democratic political folks for some time, so that鈥檚 not a surprise.鈥� Durante, like Demers, worked at TFA.

Others have more extensive 鈥� and recent 鈥� scholastic experience. Princeton University鈥檚 Cecilia Rouse, who will chair the Council of Economic Advisors, has focused her research on education and was senior editor of the Princeton-Brookings Institution journal, Future of Children.

And capturing the new administration鈥檚 work as White House video director will be Jonathan Hebert, who was part of the Biden-Harris campaign and previously worked for Our Turn Action Network, formerly named Students for Education Reform.

At Our Turn, Hebert created videos on opposition to a requiring undocumented students to pay out-of-state tuition and another on the impact of the University of Southern California鈥檚 on first-generation college students.

鈥淚n Jon,鈥� said Our Turn CEO Mohan Sivaloganathan, 鈥渋t is exciting to see a warrior for educational justice in the White House, who has a firsthand view of how young people can and should shape our schools.鈥�

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