James Kvaal, a special assistant to President Obama on the White House National Economic Council, will replace Robert M. Shireman as the Education Department’s top political appointee on higher-education issues.
Mr. Kvaal, who will join the department as deputy under secretary of education on June 7, comes to the job with a wealth of experience in higher-education policy, including several years as a Congressional aide and time as a senior policy adviser to President Bill Clinton. Before joining the economic council, in February of last year, he was a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a liberal public-policy group.
It’s unclear whether Mr. Kvaal will continue on the course set by Mr. Shireman, a darling of student and consumer groups but a bogeyman to lenders and the for-profit sector, or chart a new direction for the department. Officials at for-profit colleges, who have come under increased scrutiny under Mr. Shireman, had hoped that his successor would back off. In interviews, they said they doubted Mr. Kvaal would abandon an Education Department plan to cut off federal student aid to for-profit programs whose graduates carry high debt-to-income loads.
Still, Tom E. Netting, a lobbyist who represents for-profit colleges, described Mr. Kvaal as “fair and balanced.”
“I have always known him to be a very direct and forthcoming individual who has really dug into issues to understand them,” he said.
‘A Hand in Everything’
Mr. Kvaal previously worked with Mr. Shireman at the Clinton White House and at the Institute for College Access and Success, where Mr. Shireman was president. Higher-education lobbyists said Mr. Kvaal shared Mr. Shireman’s commitment to making college more accessible and affordable, but the lobbyists couldn’t cite specific policies he might pursue.
“He’s had such a varied career that it’s tough to pick out one” signature issue, said Becky H. Timmons, assistant vice president for government relations at the American Council on Education. “He’s had a hand in everything.”
Most recently, that has meant helping shape and advance President Obama’s higher-education agenda, including his twin goals of leading the world in the percentage of college graduates by 2020 and ensuring that every American obtains a “year or more” of college or job training.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Kvaal was a senior policy adviser on President Clinton’s National Economic Council, where he concentrated on higher education and budgeting. He also served as policy director for John Edwards’s 2008 presidential campaign, leading efforts to develop the candidate’s plan for universal health care.
At the Center for American Progress, he led the Hyde Park Project, a self-described progressive “war room” focused on health care, economic mobility, national security, and climate change. Born in Lexington, Mass., he has a B.A. in public policy from Stanford University and, like Mr. Obama, a law degree from Harvard.
