Blog

Your Education Road Map

Politics K-12®

ESSA. Congress. State chiefs. School spending. Elections. Education Week reporters keep watch on education policy and politics in the nation’s capital and in the states. Read more from this blog.

Federal

Betsy DeVos to Give First Speech at Education Department

By Alyson Klein — February 08, 2017 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Brand-new U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, who was sworn in Tuesday after one of the most heated confirmation processes in history, will be addressing Education Department employees Wednesday, beginning at 2 p.m. We’ll be streaming the speech here (livestream courtesy of ABC News).

DeVos planned to spend her first morning at the department touring the building and meeting with staff, according to a memo distributed to agency employees. Arne Duncan did something similar when he first took the job as secretary under President Barack Obama. He hung out in the cafeteria—which, believe it or not, is called “Edibles"—and introduced himself to staff members by his first name.

DeVos has yet to name a deputy or any other key players. So up until now, career staffers have been running the show, with Phil Rosenfelt temporarily taking the helm as acting secretary. (Rosenfelt is now back to being acting general counsel.) Check here for an organizational chart of which career staff have been in charge of which offices. It was distributed to employees a few weeks before DeVos was sworn in.

So what is it like for long-time career employees when a new administration comes in? And how might the Trump administration be different from the Obama, Bush, or Clinton administrations? We dug into that question here.

Watch live:

Related Tags: