The Under Secretary of Education is the third-highest-ranking official in the United States Department of Education. The Under Secretary oversees policies, programs, and activities related to postsecondary education, vocational and adult education, and federal student aid.
The Office of the Under Secretary (OUS) is responsible for helping to implement the Secretary’s Action Plan for Higher Education, which calls for expanding the accessibility, affordability, and accountability of higher education for more Americans.
The Under Secretary of Education is appointed by the President of the United States, with the approval of the United States Senate, to serve at the President's pleasure. The current Under Secretary is Dr. Martha Kanter, who was appointed by President Barack Obama in 2009.
Famous quotes containing the words secretary and/or education:
“... the wife of an executive would be a better wife had she been a secretary first. As a secretary, you learn to adjust to the boss’s moods. Many marriages would be happier if the wife would do that.”
—Anne Bogan, U.S. executive secretary. As quoted in Working, book 1, by Studs Terkel (1973)
“I am not describing a distant utopia, but the kind of education which must be the great urgent work of our time. By the end of this decade, unless the work is well along, our opportunity will have slipped by.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)