SANTA FE –New Mexico Public Education Secretary Hanna Skandera is under consideration for a job within the U.S. Department of Education – when President-Elect Donald Trump takes office, Politico reports.
According to the publication, Skandera could land a position as deputy secretary or undersecretary of education in the Trump administration. Trump nominated Betsy DeVos of Michigan on Nov. 7 as Secretary of Education. Skandera’s stance on charter school expansion is aligned with that of DeVos.
Skandera, 43, arrived in Santa Fe in 2011 prior to working with the Jeb Bush gubernatorial team in Florida. Bush dropped out of the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.
The Dec. 16 report in Politico was based on unidentified sources. A stream of telephone calls to Skandera’s Santa Fe office by the Gallup Sun weren’t returned this week.
Skandera got confirmation for the state education job despite having no teaching or administrative school experience. Skandera and Gov. Susana Martinez have duplicated some of Bush’s education initiatives, including giving schools “A” through “F” grades with respect to performance.
She was confirmed by the Senate Rules Committee in 2013. But the full senate did not hold a confirmation vote on Skandera until four years later. She was conformed 22-19.
Politico is a journalistic publication based in Arlington, Va., just outside Washington, D.C. Skandera, a California native, holds an undergraduate degree in business from Sonoma State University in California. She has a master’s degree from California’s Pepperdine University.
Skandera is a staunch advocate of charter schools and toured one such school in Jemez Pueblo on Dec. 16 with U.S. Secretary of Education John B. King, Jr.
Robert McIntyre, spokesman for the PED, assisted in facilitating contact with Skandera, who did not return phone calls seeking comment about the prospective federal job.
By Bernie Dotson
Sun Correspondent
