Speaker biographies

Mitt Romney was elected governor of Massachusetts in 2002. During his term, he has presided over a period of sustained economic expansion. Without raising taxes or increasing debt, Governor Romney has consistently balanced the budget, closing a $3-billion budget deficit his first year in office and helping the state achieve a surplus of almost $1 billion. One of Governor Romney's top priorities is reforming the education system to better equip children to compete for jobs in the global economy of the future. In addition to establishing a scholarship program in 2004 to fund college tuition for the top 25 percent of Massachusetts high school students, the governor has drafted a wide-ranging package of education reforms, including the recruitment of 1,000 skilled math and science instructors, bonuses of as much as $15,000 a year for the top-performing teachers, and important new intervention programs for failing schools. Governor Romney first attained national recognition for turning around the 2002 Olympics, which were mired in controversy and a $379-million operating deficit. Earlier in his career, Mr. Romney was vice president and later CEO of a management consulting firm, Bain & Company, Inc., and founder of Bain Capital.

Report Author Biographies

Frederick M. Hess is a resident scholar and director of education policy studies at AEI, and executive editor of Education Next. His many books include Tough Love for Schools (AEI Press, 2006), Urban School Reform (Harvard Education Press, 2005), Common Sense School Reform (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), and Spinning Wheels (Brookings, 1999). His work has appeared in a variety of scholarly and popular outlets, including Teachers College Record, Social Science Quarterly, Urban Affairs Review, American Politics Quarterly, Educational Policy, Education Week, Phi Delta Kappan, the Washington Post, and the Washington Times. He serves on a variety of boards, including the review board for the Broad Prize in Urban Education. Before joining AEI, he taught high school social studies and served as a professor of education and government at the University of Virginia.

Martin West is a research fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution and the research editor of Education Next. Mr. West is co-editor of No Child Left Behind? The Politics and Practice of School Accountability (Brookings, 2003) and author of numerous articles and papers on education policy and politics.  He is currently a doctoral fellow in the Multidisciplinary Program on Inequality and Social Policy at the Kennedy School of Government and a Ph.D. candidate in government and social policy at Harvard University. In September, he will join the faculty of Brown University as an assistant professor of education and political science.

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