CABINET/EDUCATION/TRUMP PEOPLE/BETSY DEVOS: “Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said this week she plans to appoint Arthur Wayne Johnson, the chief executive of a private student loan company, to run the federal government’s trillion-dollar financial aid operations.
The announcement Tuesday [6-21-17] did not mention Johnson’s role as founder and chief executive of Reunion Student Loan Finance Corporation, based in South Dakota.
Rather, DeVos praised a dissertation Johnson, 61, completed last year through a weekend PhD program at Mercer University in Atlanta.
‘He actually wrote the book on student loan debt,’ DeVos said in a statement.
The announcement came almost a month after James Runcie abruptly resigned as chief operating officer of the Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA). Runcie, as he left with three years remaining in his term, warned of what he described as brewing management problems within the Education Department. He complained in a letter to staff of being ‘encumbered from exercising’ his ‘authorities to properly lead.’
DeVos, in a statement, called Johnson ‘the right person to modernize FSA.’ She added: ‘He will bring a unique combination of CEO-level operating skills and an in-depth understanding of the needs and issues associated with student loan borrowers and their families.’ “
-Danielle Douglar-Gabriel and Aaron C. Davis, “DeVos picks private student loan chief to head government loan program,” The Washington Post online, June 21, 2017 03:22pm