Eugene W. Hickok
Eugene W. Hickok (born 1951, Denver, Colorado) former United States Deputy Secretary of Education in the George W. Bush administration. His time at the Department of Education was marked by controversy, leading him to resign 15 months into his tenure. Immediately after leaving this position, he began working as a lobbyist for the Washington D.C.-based firm Dutko Worldwide. He currently serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors at Montpelier (Orange, Virginia), where he has taken unprecedented steps to prevent the descendants of people enslaved at this former plantation from having an input into how the  organization is managed. Education. Hickok is a 1972 graduate of Hampden–Sydney College in Virginia. He also received his master's and Ph.D. from the University of Virginia. Career. Academics. For 15 years, Hickok taught political science at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and served as director of the college's Clarke Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Contemporary Issues. He also was an adjunct professor at the Dickinson School of Law. He was recognized as an outstanding teacher and was twice awarded Dickinson's prestigious Ganoe Award for Inspirational Teaching in 1985 and 1990. Hickok now serves as an  adjunct professor of Constitutional Politics at the University of Richmond. He also was an associate director of the political science department at Mississippi State University, and the director of financial aid for Hampden–Sydney College in Virginia. An expert on public policy, the U.S. Constitution and Federalism, Hickok has published articles and books on government and public policy, and has made presentations on these topics before myriad local, state and national organizations. In 1991, Hickok was a consultant to the governments of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia regarding constitutional, political, and economic reform. In 1986 and 1987, Hickok served as a  special assistant in the Office of Legal Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice. He also has served as an adjunct scholar at the Heritage Foundation, where he was a resident scholar in 1990 and 1991. He was elected as a member of the Carlisle Area School District Board of Directors and served until his appointment in 1995 as Education Secretary. Hickok also was a founding member and chairman of the Education Leaders Council, a group of reform-minded education chiefs who oversaw 30 percent of the nation's K-12 public school students in 2000. He also served on the  Carlisle Area School District School Board, before being appointed by former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge. Hickok was Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Education, where he was responsible for overseeing the state's education system - kindergarten through college. He was an advocate for parental choice and accountability in education and introduced standards for students and teachers. He was an early advocate for public charter schools and worked to pass Pennsylvania's law to allow for the creation of locally designed charter public schools. Deputy Secretary of Education. President George W. Bush nominated Hickok as his Deputy Secretary of Education on  March 30, 2001 and was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on July 10, 2001. Hickok served as both the Under Secretary of Education and Acting Deputy Secretary between September 2003 and November 3, 2003 when the President nominated him to become Deputy Secretary. The deputy secretary is the chief policy advisor to the Secretary. In this position, Hickok oversaw and managed the development of policies, recommendations and initiatives that help define a broad, coherent vision for achieving the President's education priorities, including the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). However, on December 2, 2004, Hickok announced he was resigning  as deputy education secretary, one week after a federal study concluded that charter schools were "less likely to meet state performance standards" due to "higher numbers of low-achieving minority students from poor families." The relative performance of charter schools compared to the national public school system is a debated aspect of NCLB. In addition, two months earlier the Government Accountability Office had also criticized NCLB citing "serious obstacles" and "a lack of clear and timely guidance from federal officials" in response to the program's newly expanded annual testing practices. The GAO recommended that the Department of Education provide  states with written guidelines, however Hickok rejected the request. According to Schools Matter, “While Eugene Hickok was Deputy Secretary of Education… tens of millions were shoveled out the door to outfits that he had helped paste together in the months before becoming Deputy Secretary.” Two such groups were the Education Leaders Council and ABCTE. Hickok also held onto 836 shares of Bank of America stock while serving as Deputy Secretary of Education, a clear conflict of interest since the “bank participate[d] in the federal student loan program” during his time in the Department of Education. He was investigated by the  U.S. Attorney’s Office for this violation and was forced to pay a $50,000 settlement in 2007. In July 2005, Hickok was hired by Washington, DC-based Dutko Worldwide to head their education practice. Dutko is a Washington, DC-based government affairs firm who, according to their web site, is "consistently ranked as one of the top 10 most powerful lobbying firms in the country by FORTUNE magazine." Also in July, former deputy education secretary Hickok registered as a lobbyist with the United States Senate Office of Public Records. Chairperson of the Montpelier Foundation. Eugene Hickok currently serves as  the Chairman of the Board of Directors at James Madison’s Montpelier, a historic house museum located at the plantation owned by President James Madison. Under Hickok’s leadership, the Board at Montpelier (Orange, Virginia) voted on a structural parity agreement with the Montpelier Descendants Committee (MDC) on 18 June 2021. Under the terms of the agreement, the MDC would have the power to appoint half of the membership of the Board. This was an incredible, historic, and widely lauded move, giving descendants of enslaved people an unprecedented amount of control over a historic house museum. The MDC is the  official organization representing Montpelier’s descendant community in their dealings with TMF, and only one descendant family has not joined the MDC. However, between June 2021 and March 2022, Hickok and the other Board members refused to accept any of the 40 nominees put forth by the MDC. A third-party mediator brought in to help the situation “eventually quit, criticizing the [Montpelier] foundation for taking actions ‘entirely inconsistent’ with” the commitments it made to the MDC. On 25 March 2022, the Board formally voted to end its agreement with the MDC. Instead, Hickok and the other Board members chose  a path that would dilute the voting power of the MDC by giving several of the promised seats on the Board to the descendant family that has chosen not to join the MDC, and who have publicly stated that they do not support the organization. This move prevents the majority of descendant families from having a say over how Montpelier is run. Hickok has told these individuals to simply “embrace” his vision of who should serve on the Board. Hickok has taken an active role in defending Montpelier’s actions, often by misrepresenting the ongoing situation. In a March 27th  press release, Hickok argued that the structural parity agreement was made with the entire descendant community, and not specifically with the MDC. But this is contradicted by Montpelier’s original press release on the structural parity agreement. He has also stated the MDC’s attempts to have a say over how Montpelier should be run has created an “untenable and toxic” environment. However, reports from staff members and the MDC show that this is not the case, as it is the Board who has prevented the original structural parity agreement from being enacted. Hickok’s Board has begun firing staff  members who publicly support the MDC.