U.S. Under Secretary of Education Martha Kanter (right), the Education Department official in charge of policies related to higher education, federal student aid, and vocational and technical education, will leave the department this fall.
She joins a long list officials from the higher education division of the Education Department who have recently resigned.
According to an article at Inside Higher Ed:
Kanter leaves the department at a time when… the administration has an “ambitious statutory, regulatory and administrative agenda,” including a redo of its botched effort to require vocational programs to prove that they are preparing students for “gainful employment” and the pending renewal of the Higher Education Act. President Obama has also stepped up his rhetoric promising a campaign to constrain higher education prices and compel colleges and universities to prove their value.
Kanter, who previously served as chancellor of California’s Foothill-De Anza Community College District, will apparently be leaving to “return to academia,” though the department did not indicate where she was going or what she will be doing.
According to the article, many education administrators rather liked Kanter, who was “accessible” and had experience running a real college (this is actually kind of rare in the Education Department).
The person who takes over for Kanter will have a lot of hard work to do. Implementing Obama’s goals for constraining college prices is basically a totally new project. The administration’s plans for this one remain pretty vague. [Image via]
