Why Most Secretaries of Education Haven’t Had a Higher-Ed Background

It may have surprised some observers that President-elect Donald J. Trump’s nominee for education secretary, Betsy DeVos, has no track record in higher-education policy. Instead, Ms. DeVos has made a name for herself as an advocate for charter schools and vouchers that allow public dollars to be spent on private schools. She is also well known for her philanthropy and support of conservative causes.

Ms. DeVos’s lack of higher-education experience isn’t unprecedented. In fact, during the relatively short history of the cabinet position, most who have led the U.S. Department of Education have been steeped in the world of school, rather than higher-education, policy. (Mr. Trump might actually have gone in the other direction: Jerry Falwell Jr., president of Liberty University, said that he had been offered the job but had turned it down.)

Experts say that the public usually tends to care more about what happens in schools than on campuses. Part of the reason: Most Americans go to elementary and secondary school, said Matthew M. Chingos, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute who researches education policy, while many fewer people end up in college.

Of the 10 secretaries who have led the Education Department since it began operating in 1980, four have come directly from positions in elementary and secondary education. That includes three of the last four: John B. King Jr., the current secretary; Arne Duncan, who served under President Obama; and Roderick R. Paige, who was named to the post by President George H.W. Bush. Ms. DeVos, on the other hand, has not led or even worked in schools. But while that might rankle some educators, it’s not unprecedented, either.

The newness of the position means there is little established protocol for what kind of person should serve as education secretary, said John Thelin, a professor of educational policy studies at the University of Kentucky.

President Jimmy Carter signed the legislation that created the Education Department, which took on many programs that had been managed by the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.

The very first secretary, Shirley Hufstedler, was a judge with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Ms. Hufstedler, who died in March, was once quoted as saying that her prime qualification for the position was that she “hadn’t had any political dealings of any kind with anybody in education.”

Terrel H. Bell, the nation’s second education secretary, worked most of his career in schools before becoming Utah’s Commissioner of Higher Education. Mr. Bell was nominated by President Reagan, who had promised to eliminate the Education Department, but changed his mind after he took office, saying at the time that such a move was opposed by Congress.

Mr. Bell’s successor, William J. Bennett, was chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities before his nomination as secretary.

Only two education secretaries have come directly from positions in higher education: Lauro F. Cavazos, one of three who served in that position under President Reagan, and Lamar Alexander, who led the education department under President George W. Bush. Mr. Cavazos was a faculty member and dean of the School of Medicine at Tufts University and later president of Texas Tech University. Mr. Alexander, now a U.S. senator from Tennessee, was known primarily as the former governor of his home state, but also led the flagship university there.

Mr. Paige had experience as a faculty member and dean of the College of Education at Texas Southern University, and as founder of the institution’s Center for Excellence in Urban Education before he became a board member and then superintendent of the Houston Independent School District.

Two other education secretaries came primarily from political backgrounds: Richard Riley, the sole person to hold the position during President Bill Clinton’s time in office, had been the governor of South Carolina.

Margaret Spellings, who served under President George W. Bush, had been a lobbyist for the Texas Association of School Boards, then was an adviser to the president before succeeding Mr. Paige.

Politics and Education

Elementary and secondary education have traditionally held a much bigger place in politics than higher education has, said Kevin Carey, director of Education Policy at the New America Foundation. This is especially the case, he said, since schools came under severe criticism in “A Nation at Risk,” a landmark 1983 report commissioned by then-President Ronald Reagan.

For a secretary of education, a background in K-12 education may be typical, but it “doesn’t really make sense,” said Suzanne Mettler, a professor in the department of government at Cornell University. The federal government, she said, has long played a much larger role in higher-education than in elementary and secondary policy. “From the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 through the Morrill Act of 1862, the GI Bill in 1944, the Higher Education Act of 1965, and Pell Grants, the federal government has historically played a major role in promoting the development of institutions of higher education and developing policies to enable students to afford to enroll and graduate,” she said in an email.

A Stunning Upset

Donald J. Trump won election as the 45th president of the United States in an astonishing upset of Hillary Clinton, a Democrat who had long led her Republican rival in the polls. Here is extended coverage of the unexpected result of their contest, and news and commentary about the coming Trump administration.

• In New Profile, DeVos Blames Staff for Rocky Confirmation Hearing
• How Much Power Does Betsy DeVos Really Hold to Shake Up Higher Ed?
• Betsy DeVos Survived a Historic Confirmation Fight. What’s Next for Higher Ed?
• Why Trump’s Billionaire Nominee Has Awakened Such Fierce Opposition

Federal school policy, however, was first established in 1965, Ms. Mettler explained, and state governments still provide more than 90 percent of the money that goes to public schools.

Other secretaries lacking higher-education expertise have taken on higher-education policy: Mr. Duncan, in particular, has led the Obama administration’s creation of a rigorous regulatory environment for colleges, focusing heavily on for-profit institutions. Ms. Spellings created the Commission on the Future of Higher Education, which led to a broad movement toward accountability in higher education.

Ms. Devos’s nomination comes at a time when politicians across the political spectrum are paying greater attention to higher education, offering proposals to deal with rising tuition and mounting student-loan debt.

Higher education has been a major focus of the Obama administration during its second term, and seemed to have eclipsed elementary and secondary education in the national spotlight. Proposals to make college tuition-free or debt-free were a central discussion during the Democratic presidential primary and remained a core part of candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign, Mr. Carey noted.

But higher education was largely absent from the Republican primary contest and Mr. Trump’s rhetoric after winning the nomination — something conservative higher-education experts have lamented as a lost opportunity.

Ms. De Vos’s selection appears to be a nod toward Mr. Trump’s promise to enact a $20-billion plan to pay for more charter schools and private-school vouchers for low-income students.

“A nominee from higher education would have been less surprising,” said Mr. Chingos, given the public attention to college prices and debt in recent years.

But a K-12 oriented pick is “both consistent with prior appointees,” he said, “and not surprising from a president-elect whose campaign did not pay much attention to education policy at either level.”

Eric Kelderman writes about money and accountability in higher education, including such areas as state policy, accreditation, and legal affairs. You can find him on Twitter @etkeld, or email him at eric.kelderman@chronicle.com.