Dear Commons Community,

Martha Kanter, a former community college chancellor who became President Obama’s top higher-education official four years ago, is leaving the Education Department this fall.  As reported in The Chronicle of Higher Education:

“In an e-mail sent to her colleagues Tuesday evening, Ms. Kanter said she was stepping down as the under secretary of education and returning to academe “to build on the work and considerable outcomes we have achieved…”

Ms. Kanter, a former chancellor of the Foothill-De Anza Community College District, is the latest in a string of high-ranking policy makers to leave the Education Department Her departure comes as President Obama is promising to “shake up” higher-education, and as the Education Department is preparing to reopen negotiations over its controversial “gainful employment” rule.

Ms. Kanter, who represented the president at numerous conferences and Congressional hearings, has been a steadfast presence at an agency that has seen considerable turnover in its higher-education offices. As the head of postsecondary education, adult, and career-technical education, and federal student aid, she has been the public face of the administration’s effort to make the nation the world’s leader in college completion.”

It is too bad she is leaving,  Kanter was one of the DOE’s top officers who had a good deal of experience working in education, both K-12 and post-secondary.

Tony