Politico: Skandera considered for high-level job in Trump administration
Politico reported Friday that President-elect Donald Trump’s team is considering Hanna Skandera, New Mexico’s public education secretary, for a high-level job in the U.S. Department of Education.
Politico said Skandera is a possibility for deputy secretary or undersecretary in Trump’s administration. The report from Politico was based on sources that it did not identify.
Skandera did not immediately respond to an email from The New Mexican asking about the report.
Skandera, 43, has ties to Jeb Bush, a former governor of Florida, who lost the Republican presidential nomination to Trump. She has no such connections to Trump, but her interest in expanding charter schools aligns with the philosophy of Betsy DeVos, who is Trump’s choice to run the U.S. Department of Education.
Before Gov. Susana Martinez appointed Skandera to lead New Mexico’s Public Education Department in January 2011, Skandera worked in Florida when Bush was governor and in her native California as part of then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s administration.
Skandera and Martinez have replicated a number of Bush’s education programs in New Mexico. They include giving all public schools a grade of A through F, and evaluating teachers in part on the standardized test scores of students.
Never a classroom teacher or a principal, Skandera’s expertise has regularly been challenged in New Mexico. Teachers from across the state testified against Skandera when she finally received a confirmation hearing in the Senate Rules Committee in 2013.
But the state Senate, controlled by Democrats, did not hold a confirmation vote on Skandera until February 2015, after she had been in office for four years. Senators finally confirmed Skandera 22-19. Five Democrats joined all 17 Republicans in supporting her.
Martinez has two years left on her second and final term as governor. Skandera is one of a handful of people remaining from Martinez’s original Cabinet.
The Santa Fe New Mexican is a sister-paper of The Taos News.
