Virginia’s Secretary of Education, Gerard Robinson, will be Florida’s next education commissioner. He is replacing Eric Smith, who resigned as Education Commissioner on June 10.
Robinson is a big supporter of charter schools and voucher programs and used to be the head of the Black Alliance for Educational Options.
As education commissioner, he will oversee hundreds of Department of Education employees, and 3,700 schools that serve 2.6 million school children.
In picking Robinson, the six-member State Board of Education is betting on someone who has never led a large organization before. Robinson is in charge of a small staff of four as Virginia’s secretary of education.
Virginia has a state superintendent that has duties similar to Florida’s education commissioner.
Though Robinson acknowledged he has not managed a large organization during his interview Monday, he said he intends to hire “strong chiefs of staff and support staff.”
Robinson will likely carry forward many of the same education reform priorities that began under former Gov. Jeb Bush, though he will add his own emphasis on dropout prevention efforts aimed toward minorities, which he said was a priority of his during his interview.
Robinson beat out four other finalists for the job of education commissioner, including someone who had been education commissioner for New Jersey and an internal candidate from the Department of Education.
It was not immediately clear when Robinson would begin his new job.
