Jimmy Carter: Shirley Hufstedler Was 'Invaluable,' a Trailblazer
Shirley M. Hufstedler is sworn in as the nation's first Secretary of Education by Chief Justice Warren Burger, right, while her husband Seth, holds a Bible in Washington on Dec. 6, 1979. President Jimmy Carter looks on, left. (AP Photo)
In his first comments about the passing of Shirley Hufstedler, the nation’s first secretary of education, former President Jimmy Carter said Hufstedler was a trailblazer who tenaciously continued her work well beyond her cabinet tenure.
Hufstedler died Wednesday at the age of 90 in California. She served in the Carter administration as education secretary from 1979 to 1981, during the first years that Congress created the U.S. Department of Education.
“Rosalynn and I are saddened by the passing of Shirley Hufstedler. She was a good friend and an invaluable member of my cabinet,” Carter told RealClearEducation. “As the country’s first secretary of education, she blazed a trail for those who followed. Even after she left her post, she continued to champion quality public education, speaking out against school funding cuts and advocating for high academic standards. We offer our condolences to her family and friends at this difficult time.”
In Carter’s 2010 “White House Diary,” he said establishing an education department had been a longtime goal, and his “hope and expectation were that the new department would devote almost all its resources to making an effective contribution to education and supplementing the primary role of state and local governments,” Bloomberg reports.
Before heading the Education Department, Hufstedler served as an appellate judge in federal and state courts. She returned to private practice at California’s Morrison & Foerster LLP after her work at the Department.
Hufstedler and husband Seth were in Morrison & Foerster offices every day, said Hailly Korman, once a new attorney at Morrison & Foerster, and now a principal working on issues affecting incarcerated youth for national nonprofit Bellwether Education Partners.[*] Hufstedler’s door was always open.
“What made the biggest impression on me was being able to share an office with someone who really defined what it meant to be a woman working in the legal field,” Korman said. “She was an incredible mentor to a young attorney, and had such a strong personality and character with an incredible sense of humor. She was remarkable for remaining so engaged in her work and intellectual pursuits.”
Hufstedler was also on the shortlist for a Supreme Court nomination, should a seat have opened during the Carter administration. But no such opportunity arose to make Hufstedler the first female Supreme Court justice, and that place went to Sandra Day O’Connor – a Reagan nominee – in 1981.
Ronald Reagan’s win over Carter in the 1980 election cut Hufstedler’s tenure as education secretary to just over a year. Still, she oversaw the establishment of the 18,000-employee agency that took in more than 150 existing federal programs under a $14 billion budget. Reagan later made cuts to the agency and federal education funding, moves that Hufstedler publicly criticized.
“She was a trailblazer and a champion for equity, defining the department's role as a protector of civil rights,” Secretary of Education John B. King, Jr. said in a statement Wednesday. “She will remain on our minds and in our hearts as we continue the work to ensure that all students are prepared for success in school, work, and life. As we remember and celebrate Secretary Hufstedler's legacy, let us recommit to expanding equity in education for all students.”
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[*] RealClearEducation is a joint project between RealClearPolitics and Bellwether Education. Learn more here.
