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.

Education

Top Harkin Aide Leaves Senate Education Committee

By Alyson Klein — February 27, 2012 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Super Inside Baseball Alert: Bethany Little, who has served Chairman Tom Harkin’s top education aide, is leaving the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee to join America Achieves.

That’s the new national non-profit organization headed up by Jon Schnur, the co-founder of New Leaders. Schnur was also a key K-12 advisor to President Obama’s re-election campaign and helped lead the transition team that installed Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in the U.S Department of Education. Schnur and Little previously worked together in the Clinton White House.

Little was one of the major players working behind the scenes on the Senate education committee’s bipartisan legislation renewing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

That bill hasn’t been scheduled for floor action, and many advocates are guessing reauthorization won’t be completed until well after the presidential election.

After I pressed her, Little said her decision to leave the committee doesn’t have anything to do with the state of play on ESEA reauthorization. It’s a family decision, she explained.

And Little is excited about her new gig. “It’s a really strong leadership team of people who are committed to doing really good education work that is very close to my heart,” she said.

Little will be on the Hill for the next few weeks, wrapping things up. No word yet on who her replacement will be.

More on Little’s background here and here (registration required for the second link.)