Gerard Robinson, the education secretary for Virginia and one of the nation's most stalwart advocates for school choice and parental empowerment, was picked just minutes ago to replace Eric J. Smith as Florida's education commissioner. The vote from Florida's Board of Education was unanimous.
Robinson had been Virginia's education secretary for about 15 months under Gov. Bob McDonnell and had joined nine other state education secretaries, including Smith, in the Chiefs for Change coalition brought together by Jeb Bush's Foundation for Excellence in Education.
He also served as president of the Black Alliance for Educational Options for nearly three years, a tenure that followed years of work with Howard Fuller in BAEO and in Fuller's Institute for the Transformation of Learning at Marquette University.
