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Romney Campaign Announces ‘Educators For Romney’

By Alyson Klein — September 14, 2012 2 min read
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GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney already has a team of education advisers that includes some prominent names. Now his campaign has assembled a new posse of “national education leaders” who will “lead an effort to coordinate support for Mitt Romney and his bold education reforms that will put students first,” in press-release speak.

We’ll have to see what that actually translates to in terms of the real campaign, but everyone on the list is from a swing state—Virginia is especially well represented.

And the list includes a lot of state education board members. There are also a bunch of state lawmakers who have worked as classroom teachers or administrators.

The group will be led by former U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige, who headed the department during President George W. Bush’s first term. (He was also on the original list of Romney edu-visers.)

Here’s a look at the rest of the team, including some very preliminary research (by which I mean I Googled them for you):

•Kristi LaCroix, Teacher, Lakeview Technology Academy - Kenosha, Wisconsin. Apparently, this teacher and GOP activist got into hot-water for supporting Republican Gov. Scott Walker who curbed collective bargaining rights.

•John Giotis, Headmaster, The School of the Immaculata - St. Petersburg, Fla. Check out the school’s Web site here.

•Joan Moorhead, Teacher, Williams Intermediate School - Davenport, Iowa. She appears to have won a recent science-teaching award.

•John Lyons, former Chairman, New Hampshire State Board of Education.

•Eileen Weiser, Michigan State Board of Education.

•Debe Terhar, President, Ohio State Board of Education.

•Pam Benigno, Director, Independence Institute - Education Policy Center, a “free-market” think tank in Denver. More on their education views here.

•Mike Lair, Missouri State Representative. He’s a former teacher.

•Scott Hammond, Nevada State Assemblyman. Also a teacher. More about him on his campaign site.

•Jerry Tillman, North Carolina State Senator. He’s a former school administrator, according to this site.

Bernie O’Neill, Pennsylvania State Representative. Also a former teacher.

•Harry Blevins, Virginia State Senator, a former principal, according to this site.

Kirk Cox, Virginia State Delegate, who has taught high school government.

•Lee Ware, Virginia State Delegate, also a history and government teacher

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