Federal News in Brief

Trump Administration Pulls Plug on Career-Tech-Ed Nominee

By Alyson Klein — November 14, 2017 1 min read
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The Trump administration is yanking the nomination of Tim Kelly, a Michigan state representative who President Donald Trump tapped to lead the office of career, technical, and adult education at the U.S. Department of Education, after it surfaced that he was the author of a personal blog that made offensive statements about Muslims, Head Start parents, and federal efforts to recruit women into the sciences, a source said.

Sources said U. S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos made the decision when she was presented with the information. The blog should have been caught in the White House vetting process, one source said. And Kelly should have disclosed it with his application, but failed to do so, the source added.

Kelly, who had been scheduled for a Nov. 15 confirmation hearing before the Senate education committee, would have been tasked with implementing the $1.1 billion Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education program, the largest source of federal funding for high schools, as well as other initiatives.

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A version of this article appeared in the November 15, 2017 edition of Education Week as Trump Administration Pulls Plug On Career-Tech-Ed Nominee

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