Alexander: Frank Brogan Is an “Impressive” Nominee Who Will Oversee Education Law That Restores More Freedom to States

“[The Every Student Succeeds Act] is an especially important law to the members of this committee. We held 27 hearings, spent countless hours working out our differences and reaching a consensus: Continue the law’s important measurements of academic progress of students but restore to states, school districts, classroom teachers and parents the responsibility for deciding what to do about improving student achievement.  This change should produce fewer tests and more appropriate ways to measure student achievement.”

WASHINGTON, D.C., January 25, 2018 – Senate education committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today said that Frank Brogan – nominated to serve as Assistant Secretary of Elementary and Secondary Education – is an impressive nominee who will be tasked with implementing the new education law as Congress wrote it, restoring more freedom to states.

“In this role, Mr. Brogan’s job will be to implement laws as Congress wrote them, including the law we wrote fixing No Child Left Behind,” Alexander said. “This is an especially important law to the members of this committee. We held 27 hearings, spent countless hours working out our differences and reaching a consensus. We held a 3-day markup where we considered 57 amendments. And after we approved it 22 to 0, it passed the Senate 85-12.”

“In the end, we produced a law that reflected our consensus at the start: Continue the law’s important measurements of academic progress of students but restore to states, school districts, classroom teachers and parents the responsibility for deciding what to do about improving student achievement.  This change should produce fewer tests and more appropriate ways to measure student achievement.”

“As Assistant Secretary, Mr. Brogan will be overseeing the approval of the remaining state plans, and monitoring and evaluating whether the states are doing what they said they would do. I commend the work Secretary DeVos and her staff have already done in approving these plans. She is charting new territory—approving plans that restore to states freedom to set goals and hold students accountable. And I believe she has been following the law – appropriately balancing the law’s flexibility and guardrails.”

Mr. Brogan was the first in his family to attend college, earning a bachelor’s degree in education and then a master’s degree in education. He has served as served as an elementary school teacher, principal, and superintendent, and as Florida’s Commissioner of Education and lieutenant governor.

Alexander’s full prepared remarks are available here.