Belmont University’s College of Education has its first Dean, and he’s got a record of undermining public schools and attacking teachers. The Lexington Herald-Leader reports that outgoing Kentucky Commissioner of Education Wayne Lewis will be the inaugural Dean of the College of Education at Nashville’s Belmont University. Here’s more:

Wayne D. Lewis Jr., who just resigned under pressure from Gov. Andy Beshear’s newly appointed Kentucky Board of Education, was on Monday named the inaugural Dean of the College of Education at Belmont University at Nashville, according to a news release from Belmont.

As Commissioner of Education in Kentucky, Lewis advanced an agenda focused on creating charter schools in Louisville and Lexington. He also helped then-Governor Matt Bevin crackdown on teacher strikes by requesting that districts provide him with a list of teachers who had taken sick days on days coinciding with demonstrations against Bevin’s privatization agenda in Frankfort.

In announcing the hire, Belmont Provost Thomas Burns said:

“We wanted to find a different kind of leader to build our ‘dream’ of a College of Education, who will lead the faculty and staff in the School of Education to develop and deliver world-class programs designed to educate teachers for students in our community and our world as the next generation of compassionate, confident and committed leaders in the classroom and beyond.”

Apparently, Belmont’s dream includes the privatization of public schools and the silencing of teachers voicing dissent over low pay and poor working conditions. Should be great for recruiting students to the program.

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