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American educational policy advisor
Williamson Evers

Williamson M. "Bill" Evers (born 18 October 1948) is an American political activist and education researcher. In 1988, he became a resident scholar at Stanford University's Hoover Institution—first as a national fellow, then a visiting scholar, and most recently a research fellow there and at the Independent Institute. He went on leave from Hoover to serve as Assistant Secretary for the Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development in the United States Department of Education during 2007-2009. At the beginning of September 2016, he was selected to lead the "agency action team" for the Department of Education in the Trump-Pence transition.

Born

18 Oct 1948, Williamson M. Evers, in San Francisco, California

Associations

Hoover Institution, Research Fellow
Independent Institute, Research Fellow
Mises Institute, Adjunct Faculty (-2006)

Web Pages

Williamson M. Evers | Hoover Institution
Includes photograph, biographical summary, areas of expertise and recent writings
Williamson M. Evers was a research fellow at the Hoover Institution where he specialized in research on education policy especially as it pertained to curriculum, teaching, testing, accountability, and school finance. Evers was head of the 'agency action team' for the U.S. Department of Education in the Trump transition from early September 2016 through January 2017. He was the US assistant secretary of education for planning, evaluation, and policy development from 2007 to 2009. ... He is the only individual to have served on both [California academic content] standards commissions [in 1996 and 2010] ...

Articles

Bill Evers Goes Neocon, by Justin Raimondo, 15 Jan 2004
Short tongue-in-cheek commentary, adjunct to longer article by Eric Garris, discussing Evers' op-ed in the Wall Street Journal where Evers described "how successful the Pentagon has been at restoring public eduation in Iraq"
It's funny, but Bill Evers used to be one of those libertarians who went around giving everyone else a purity test, and he often found them wanting. Back in the good old days, he used to write a column for Libertarian Vanguard, the newspaper of the Radical Caucus, called 'Brickbats and Bouquets,' in which he handed out kudos and judo chops to those that, in his view, deserved them. ... How fitting that he ... should now be the recipient of one of the biggest brickbats of all time. ... I ... am glad to see that Bill has finally ... found himself a decent job. After all, how long can you pretend to be a grad student ...?
Jeff Riggenbach on Samuel Edward Konkin III, by Jeff Riggenbach, Freedom Network News, 2004
Lengthy biographical and memorial essay
If memory serves me rightly (and, of course, it seldom does), on the day in 1975 when I first met Sam, I also met another libertarian luminary of the time, Williamson M. "Bill" Evers ... George [Smith] introduced me to both of them, and, later ... commented: "You know how some people are strict Randians? Well, Bill is perhaps the best example you could find of a strict Rothbardian." ... Evers is now a salaried employee of the U.S. Department of Defense, charged with rebuilding the public schools in Baghdad; he calls himself a "libertarian conservative" in print. Rothbard is doubtless spinning in his tomb.
The Triumphant Return from Iraq of The Once-Great Libertarian, by Eric Garris, 15 Jan 2004
Describes the ideological metamorphosis of Evers from 1973 in the California Peace and Freedom Party, through 1978 in the Libertarian Party Radical Caucus, until 2004 working for the Iraq Coalition Provisional Authority
Bill Evers was one of the intellectual guiding lights ... He co-wrote the 1974 platform of the California Peace and Freedom Party ... At the 1975 national LP convention, Murray Rothbard and Bill Evers rewrote the party platform. The essential hardcore elements of the Rothbard-Evers platform continue today ... In 1983 ... Evers attacked Raimondo and me for 'selling out' by supporting the Cato Institute-affiliated candidate ... In August 2003, Hoover announced that Bill was appointed senior adviser to the Iraqi Ministry of Education. ... Bill returned last month to Hoover as a hero, with his political future much brighter.
Related Topic: Murray N. Rothbard

Writings

Why Johnny Can't Add, Hoover Digest, 2000
Criticizes the U.S. Department of Education October 1999 endorsement of math "discovery-learning" programs and constrasts those to the rigorous curriculum proposed by 200 mathematicians and scientists in an open letter
In early 1998, U.S. secretary of education Richard Riley called for a 'cease-fire' in the math wars between the proponents of solid content and the proponents of discovery-learning methods. He said he was 'very troubled' by 'the increasing polarization and fighting' about how and which mathematics should be taught from kindergarten through high school. ... This whole controversy was born in bureaucratic overreach. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 forbids federally determined curricula. The U.S. Constitution doesn't authorize it, and the results have been harmful and foolish.
Related Topic: Compulsory Education

The introductory paragraph uses material from the Wikipedia article "Williamson Evers" as of 14 Nov 2017, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.