Daschle to HHS

The education blogosphere is running rampant with speculation about who President-elect Obama will choose to be the next Secretary of Education. Early Ed Watch has tried to steer clear of the guessing game – though we’re pleased to note that some rumored front-runners have records of supporting early education.

When it comes to early education and related federal policies and funding streams, the Department of Education is actually less important than the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which runs the federal Head Start program and also oversees the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) and Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), which funds state child care programs.

On Wednesday, we learned that Obama is nominating former South Dakota Senator and Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle to serve as Secretary of Health and Human Services. Since leaving the Senate, Daschle has focused on issues related to health care reform and universal health care, and he was a key adviser to the Obama campaign during the election. As such, Daschle will likely play a key role in the Obama administration’s efforts to enact health care reforms.

It’s less clear what Daschle’s selection means for the early education programs that would fall under his purview. Early education has never been a particularly strong priority of Daschle’s—he served on the Finance and Agriculture committees in the Senate, neither of which deals with early education issues, and he hails from a state that doesn’t even have a state pre-k program.

A more significant personnel choice for early education is the Assistant Secretary for Children and Families (ACF), whose portfolio includes Head Start, CCDBG, and TANF. Wade Horn, who served as Assistant Secretary for ACF from 2001 to 2007, played a key role in the Bush administration’s implementation of the controversial National Reporting System, as well as the Good Start, Grow Smart initiative. The next Assistant Secretary for Children and Families will likely play a key role in crafting and implementing policies related to early education.

The Obama-Biden transition team has selected Agency Review Teams who will review operations of federal agencies and guide the transition. It’s likely that members of these teams will also fill key positions in the new administration. The Department of Health and Human Services Team has several early education experts, including Joan Lombardi, a nationally recognized early childhood researcher who previously served as deputy assistant secretary for ACF and associate commissioner of the Child Care Bureau during the Clinton administration. Could Lombardi potentially be preparing to return to HHS as Assistant Secretary for ACF?

Other transition team members with expertise in early education include Olivia Golden, who researches welfare reform, child, and family policy at the Urban Institute, and George Askew, a pediatrician who founded Docs for Tots, a group that advocates for investments in young children, including early education.

One other name to keep an eye on: Rob Dugger, who founded of the Partnership for America’s Economic Success, which advocates for increased investment in young children, including early education, health care, and youth development. Dugger serves on Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine’s Strong Start Pre-kindergarten Council and co-chaired former Governor (now incoming Senator) Mark Warner’s Virginia Early Learning Council. There’s also a Daschle connection: Dugger’s wife, Joan Huffer, is a long-time Daschle staffer who’s now at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, but who we wouldn’t be shocked to see join her former boss at HHS. Inside or outside government, Dugger seems well-poised to influence the shape of, and help sell Congress on, Obama’s early childhood proposals.

Early Ed Watch doesn’t know what’s in store for HHS’ portfolio of early education programs in the new administration, but we’ll be keeping a close eye on the agency’s personnel developments as the transition moves forward. In the coming weeks we’ll also take a look at the Department of Education’s transition team, the yet-to-be-named Secretary of Education, and potential implications for early education there.