Education envoy keeps the peace
Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s willingness to publicly pressure teachers unions to “change and evolve” has sometimes strained relations with a key Democratic constituency.
One reason the administration has avoided a major rift with teachers unions is a little-known adviser named Jo Anderson
A former executive director of Illinois’s largest education union, Anderson, 66, is described by some union leaders as labor’s “man on the inside.” As Duncan’s senior adviser, he fills a vital role at the Department of Education: chief liaison to the nation’s education unions.
More than two years into the Obama administration, there has been plenty of cause for conflict with teachers unions, which play a critical role in Democratic voter turnout during election years.
Against the advice of union leaders, the administration encouraged districts to ease restrictions against tying teacher pay to student performance and to lower barriers for firing under-performing teachers. Tensions seemed to explode when Duncan initially appeared to back the firing of teachers at a struggling Rhode Island school last year.
In the midst of all that, a soft-spoken but
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