Education News
April 24, 2009
1.
U.S. Education Secretary Duncan Announces Appointments at the U.S. Department
of Education
Department of Education, April 20, 2009
2.
House Passes Bills to Reduce Electronic Waste, Improve Education in EnergyEfficient Building Design
House Science and Technology Committee, April 22, 2009
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1.
U.S. Education Secretary Duncan Announces Appointments at the U.S. Department
of Education
Department of Education, April 20, 2009
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan today announced the appointment of Robert Shireman
as deputy undersecretary and Massie Ritsch as deputy assistant secretary for External Affairs and
Outreach at the U.S. Department of Education.
In his role, Shireman will advise the Department on college financial issues and other higher
education initiatives. A leading expert on college access and financial aid, he previously served
as a congressional appointee to the Federal Advisory Committee on Student Financial
Assistance, an advisor to U.S. Sen. Paul Simon and as part of President Clinton's White House
National Economic Council. Shireman is founder of the Institute for College Access and Success
and the Project on Student Debt. He holds a bachelor's degree in economics from University of
California at Berkeley and masters' degrees from Harvard in education and the University of San
Francisco in public administration.
Ritsch will oversee outreach to education associations, foundations and think-tanks. He comes to
the Department from his job as communications director at the Center for Responsive Politics
where he served as chief strategist for the organization and, among other duties, oversaw the
organization's award-winning Website, OpenSecrets.org. Ritsch also served as vice president of
the Sugerman Communications Group in Los Angeles, where he helped salvage public funds for
a consortium of innovative schools chartered by the Los Angeles Board of Education, as well as
garner support for a universal preschool initiative. Prior to his time at Sugerman, Ritsch covered
local education issues and the 2000 presidential campaign for the Los Angeles Times. He
received his bachelor's degree in politics from Princeton University.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2.
House Passes Bills to Reduce Electronic Waste, Improve Education in EnergyEfficient Building Design
House Science and Technology Committee, April 22, 2009
H:\BOONIC\Shared\Higher Education Policy Group\Weekly News Clippings\2009\April\Education News 4.20.09.doc
Today, the U.S House of Representatives passed H.R. 1580, the Electronic Device Recycling
Research and Development Act, by voice vote, and H.R. 957, the Green Energy Education Act
of 2009, by a vote of 411 - 6
HR 1580 authorizes the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to award
grants to reduce the volume of discarded electronic products in the United States through
research, development, and demonstration projects for product design, recycling and re-use.
“This is a step toward a better end for the millions of old cell phones, televisions, computers, and
other electronic devices Americans discard every year. Right now, we send most to landfills,
where toxic materials, like lead and cadmium, may leech into soil and water, and where valuable
materials, like gold and copper, are unusable. We store a lot in our closets or junk drawers, for
lack of a better alternative, and we recycle a small percentage,” said Science and Technology
Committee Chairman Bart Gordon (D-TN). “This bill invests in research to foster innovations to
enable more efficient recycling, the selection of more environmentally friendly materials, better
ways to educate consumers about electronics recycling, and methods to design products for
easier disassembly and recycling.”
It is supported by a broad group of stakeholders, including the Consumer Electronics Retailers
Coalition; Consumer Electronics Association; the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries; the
Electronics Take Back Coalition; CTIA – The Wireless Association; the National Association of
Manufacturers; and TechAmerica.
H.R. 957 authorizes the Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Science Foundation
(NSF) to collaborate on the solicitation and funding of grants to institutions of higher education
for education and training in clean energy and high-performance building design.
“Buildings consume more energy than any other sector of the economy. We have a significant
opportunity to save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by fostering and using
innovations in high-performance building technologies, materials, techniques and systems,” said
Gordon. “The legislation would provide interdisciplinary education and training in highperformance building design and construction to the next generation of architects and engineers
that we’ll need.”
For more information, please see the Committee’s website.
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