Martha Kanter announced her departure this week from the Department of Education, where she has served as under secretary since June 2009.
According to multiple news reports, Kanter informed colleagues of her decision through an email in which she said she is leaving the Department of Education to return to academia. Kanter did not say where she plans to work.
Before joining the Department of Education, Kanter was chancellor of the Foothill-De Anza Community College District in California. The district, with more than 45,000 students and a $400 million annual budget, is one of the largest in the nation, according to the Department of Education website.
Kanter is the first community college official to hold such a high rank within the Department of Education.
While she plans to leave in the fall, she also has committed to wait until the administration has found a replacement, according to the Huffington Post, which first reported Kanter’s departure.
According to the Huffington Post, Kanter wrote in the email: “Serving as your Under Secretary has deepened my understanding and appreciation of what ‘service to improve the public good of our nation’ really means. The promise and power of delivering good government to our students and families is a tireless, phenomenal effort, often with few external rewards if done honestly, fairly and well.”
Kanter oversees many areas of Obama’s higher education polices, including adult and career-technical education and federal student aid, according to the Department of Education website. Her job is to spearhead efforts to attain Obama’s goal of the United States having “the best educated, most competitive workforce in the world by 2020.”
The website also reports that she handles many White House initiatives: Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, Educational Excellence for Hispanics, Educational Excellence for African Americans, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribal Colleges and Universities and Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.
Kanter’s efforts led to a 50% increase in college enrollment, according to the Department of Education, with the number of students getting federal Pell Grants increasing from 6 million to 9 million. Kanter’s team also is working with the Department of Labor on implementing the first $500 million of a $2 billion program to improve the quality of education, graduation rates and employment opportunities for community college students.
Kanter’s departure “thins out the ranks of the Education Department’s first-term upper echelons,” according to the Huffington Post, which reported that the department only recently filled the positions to head the preschool and civil rights offices, as well as the general counsel.
The press secretary also recently resigned, as well as the head of special education initiatives.
Transitioning could be “tricky” at this time, according to the Huffington Post article, because Obama has promised to shake up the system of higher education. What that entails has still not been announced publicly, although it is expected that Obama will seek to control college costs as well as improve the value of a college degree.
In her memo, Kanter vowed to keep fighting for the administration’s education principles.
“Over the next few months, my priority is to ensure a seamless transition for the Department until a new Under Secretary comes on board,” she wrote.
“I remain committed to achieving the goals for our nation’s postsecondary students, institutions and communities: access, affordability, quality and completion. I will continue to pursue these ends during this transition period and beyond. “
