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Lisa Graham Keegan

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Lisa Graham Keegan
File:Lisa Keegan 2008-1.jpg
Lisa Keegan
Born(1959-07-20)July 20, 1959 [Age 50]
Palo Alto, California,
United States
NationalityAmerican
EducationBA, Stanford University, 1981 MA, Arizona State University, 1983
OccupationEducation reform advocate
SpouseJohn Keegan

Lisa Graham Keegan is an education consultant and advocate for education reform. She is a former Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction and was senior policy advisor to Sen. John McCain's 2000 and 2008 presidential campaigns on education issues.[1][2] In 1994, McCain was chairman of Keegan's campaign to be state superintendent.[3] Her "policy expertise, combined with her history of successfully implementing state-level and national education reforms, has made her a sought after education reform expert who frequently addresses the U.S. Congress, state legislative bodies, business groups, and education organizations."[4]

At the 2008 National Republican Convention she was a vice chairman of the Republican Party political platform committee and instrumental in development of policy statements on education issues.[5] Keegan was a prime time speaker[6] at the convention on education and disaster relief issues.[7]

Keegan is a national leader in the area of education reform and accountability.[8] She has championed stronger state and local accountability policies including high-stakes testing; school choice methods such as vouchers, tuition tax credits, charter schools and open-enrollment; and demanding improvement from public schools with poor academic performance. She urges parents to make informed decisions about their children's school, without undue interference by the government.[9] According the National Review, she “created the most effective charter school program in the country.”[10] The Arizona Republic noted Keegan pushed “Arizona into the vanguard of school reforms in the 1990s and led national education changes favored by conservatives in recent years."[11] Keegan is respected by both her supporters and opponents as a straightforward and honorable advocate for improving the educational system.[11]

Keegan has been an advisor to or part of the transition team for governors Jeb Bush of Florida, Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, Jan Brewer of Arizona and Chris Christie of New Jersey, and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich.[12]

Education consultant and reform advocate

Lisa Keegan is the principal partner of the Keegan Company and a consultant on a national scale on education issues. She speaks and writes professionally on the need and ways to reform the educational system in America..[13] Additionally she is actively involved in the Education Equality Project with Joel I. Klein, Chancellor, NYC Public Schools, Dr. Michael Lomax of the United Negro College Fund, Raul Yzaguirre of Arizona State University and Rev. Al Sharpton,.[14]

Keegan has authored numerous articles for Education Next published by the Hoover Institute, the Manhattan Institute of New York, the Pioneer Institute of Massachusetts, as well as the New York Times, Arizona Republic and other periodicals. She is a frequent speaker on education issues to major policy groups such as the Hoover Institute Board of Governors, Institute of Economic Affairs at the University of London, Empower America, Cato Institute, Heritage Foundation, and the American Enterprise Institute. Nationally syndicated columnists such as George Will of Newsweek,[8] David Brooks of the Weekly Standard, and Clint Bolick of National Review have featured Keegan and her education reform agenda. In her professional capacity, she "consults with the education industry in areas of emerging markets" and "writes and speaks on critical issues in American education".[4]

Keegan is on the board of the Century Council in Washington, D.C. Previously she served on Secretary's Commission on Opportunity in Athletics (Title IX), Empower America, Foundation for Teaching Economics, GreatSchools.net,[11] Alliance for School Choice, and Children First America. In 2008, Keegan was the president of the school board of New Way Learning Academy, a school for special needs students. She sparked controversy by insisting on academic standards and accreditation, and adherence to state and federal privacy requirements. Her education credo may be summarized by her response to her critics: "Change is uncomfortable."[15]

Additionally, Keegan is a proponent for education reform in forums such as former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich's American Solutions for Winning the Future, the National Journal's weekly Education Expert Blog, Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network, and Bob Compton's Two Million Minutes series.[16][17] Lisa Keegan co-authored the education chapter of Ginrich's 2010 book To Save America: Stopping Obama's Secular-Socialist Machine. There she wrote, "We must be an intellectually hungry, morally strong, and urgently demanding nation with an education system capable of responding to a voracious American desire to learn." [18]


McCain campaign

File:Keegan At '08 GOP convention.jpg
Lisa Keegan at the '08 GOP Convention, September 3, 2008

During the 2008 presidential campaign, Keegan served as senior policy advisor on education issues to Republican nominee John McCain as well as vice-presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin.[19] In this capacity, she helped to shape and write the campaign's education policies and often served as McCain's surrogate in debates, on panels, and on radio and television where these issues were discussed.[20] A hallmark of the plan drafted by Keegan is that increased academic performance must be central in all education reform measures.

Keegan was a vice chairman of the 2008 Republican Party political platform committee and instrumental in development of national policy statements. [5] She was a prime time speaker[6] at the convention [7] and was the principle spokesperson for McCain 08 on education issues throughout the campaign. She regularly debated a variety of political advisors to Senator Barack Obama’s campaign on national media outlets such as Fox News and The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on PBS.[21]

Professional background

Lisa Keegan was Arizona state superintendent of public instruction from 1995 to 2001. Prior to becoming state superintendent, she served two terms in the Arizona House of Representatives in 1991 to 1995 where she was chair of the Education Committee. For a decade as an Arizona state official, Keegan led that state's education reform movement. She was first elected as the Superintendent of Public Instruction in 1994 and reelected in 1998. This election was particularly significant because it was the first time in the history of the United States that all five of the top elected executive offices of a state were held by women: Jane Dee Hull, governor; Betsey Bayless, secretary of state; Janet Napolitano, attorney general; Carol Springer, treasurer; and Keegan, superintendent of public instruction.

As superintendent, she was the director of the Arizona Department of Education, the state education agency. Arizona implemented the most vigorous charter school program in the country under her leadership.[22]

As a legislator and Arizona's chief educational official, she advocated for rigorous academic standards, annual testing, stronger accountability, and school choice.[23] She led the movement to enact the Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards, or AIMS, test. This test, designed largely by classroom educators, set academic standards for high school graduation in reading, writing, and mathematics.[11] In response to public and political criticism of imposing academic standards for gradation, Keegan took all phases of the test and posted her passing scores. She continued to resist, often unsuccessfully, political pressure to delay and water down the AIMS standards. Additionally, she championed into law the School Tuition Organization Tax Credit Bill. The bill created a tax-exempt funding source for funding of scholarships at private schools or enrichment programs at publicly funded schools.[24] This law was the first time such a measure had been passed in the United States. It was vigorously opposed by unions representing public school teachers such as the NEA and the AFL-CIO affiliate American Federation of Teachers, and like-minded groups of administrators and governing boards. It was ultimately upheld in both state and federal courts.

Keegan's criticism has come from both the right and the left. Liberals, union officials, and supporters of the government-run school establishment, argue that the school choice reforms she introduced as Arizona superintendent of public instruction failed to make significant increases in academic performance, and diverted resources from government run schools for the sole purpose of providing parental choice in education.[25] Conservative critics have attacked her over local control issues and her position that teachers need to be treated and paid comparable with other professionals.[26]


Keegan served on Governor Jeb Bush's Restructuring Team for Florida Department of Education and on California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's Education Policy Transition Team. On numerous occasions she provided testimony to the US Congress on current education issues, and briefed newly elected congressional members at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. She was education advisor to candidate George W. Bush and a member of the administration transition team. In December 2000 she was one of only two candidates interviewed by then President-elect George W. Bush to be U.S. Secretary of Education.[27][28]


In 2001, Keegan accepted the position of Chief Executive Officer of the Education Leaders Council (ELC), a non-profit, conservative education reform organization Keegan and a number of other state school chiefs had founded in 1995.[11] ELC is an alternative to Council of Chief State School Officials (CCSSO), a more liberal oriented organization with close ties to the teacher unions such as National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT).[29] Under Keegan’s leadership, it appeared at first that ELC would indeed rival the older, more established CCSSO, as ELC quickly secured federal funding for its reform-oriented project, Following the Leaders, to implement the reform policies of the new federal education law. In late 2003 and early 2004 a series of articles in the Washington media led to the resignations of several of ELC’s directors. The allegations were of such a nature that ELC took legal action to stop further reporting.[30] A subsequent investigation by the U.S. Department of Education initially suggested that ELC did not fully comply with federal regulations for the funds it was expending,[31] and federal procurement standards.[32] A final audit, however, showed that ELC’s financial and administrative management had actually undercharged the Department of Education and outstanding grant funding was ultimately paid to the ELC and its spin-off organization, Following the Leaders by the Department of Education.[11][33][34] Keegan’s original three-year contract was extended to September 2004, after which she became an independent education and public policy consultant.


From 2001 to 2004, Keegan consulted with President George W. Bush, his senior domestic policy staff and Secretary of Education Rod Paige on matters of education policy, as well as with the education leadership of 38 states. She worked closely with the administration and leadership of both parties in the United States Congress on federal education legislation and policy. Significant policies and programs she helped implement during this time include the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, Following the Leaders School Implementation Program, American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence,[11] Washington DC School Choice Program. In 2003 she was a member of Education Secretary Rod Page's Title IX Commission.[35]

In 2006, Keegan became a consultant to Maricopa County, Arizona and quickly became assistant county manager for community solutions and innovation.[36] In this role she improved both internal and external communications in the fifth largest county government in the U.S., and helped frame public policy issues for local government. She left Maricopa County in May 2008 to join the McCain presidential campaign as education policy advisor.[11]

Personal background

Born July 20, 1959, she has a bachelor's degree in linguistics from Stanford University (1981) and a master's degree in communication disorders from Arizona State University (1983). In 1998 she received the Milton Friedman Foundation Award for free enterprise innovation in education. She received the Athena Award from Athena International,[37] and was named Education Leader of the Year by the national Republican Party in 1999. The Adam Smith Award for Economics Education was presented to her in 2000.

Keegan is a former senior warden in the Episcopal Church. In 1977, she won the title National Champion by the International Arabian Horse Association. Keegan briefly served as the acting governor of Arizona in 1996 when Governor Jane Hull and other officers were absent from the state.[38]

In 2009 Lisa Keegan was selected for the World Leadership Award by the Arizona council of the Girl Scouts of America. The award was to recognize her “contribution to the community and (her) testament to the Girl Scouts’ code of honor.”[39] video interview

Keegan is a mother of five children. She is married to John Keegan, a judge of the justice courts in Arizona.[40] Her husband often refers to her as Crusader Rabbit.[41]

References

  1. ^ "Congressional Quarterly: McCain's Policy Team, September 1, 2008". Retrieved 2008-09-06.
  2. ^ "A McCain team could include some Arizonans, Possibilities: Kyl, Keegan, Peters, Woods". Retrieved 2008-02-19.
  3. ^ "Keegan expands role as McCain education adviser". Retrieved 2008-03-06.
  4. ^ a b "Publishing for the Digital Future". Retrieved 2008-08-17.
  5. ^ a b "2008 Republican Platform" (PDF). Retrieved 2008-09-06.
  6. ^ a b http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-17108990.html
  7. ^ a b "C-SPAN videos of Lisa Keegan". Retrieved 2008-09-04.
  8. ^ a b "George Will: Straight Talk fromArizona". Retrieved 2008-09-06.
  9. ^ "The McCain Squadron". Retrieved 2008-06-08.
  10. ^ "LISA GRAHAM KEEGAN, TOO GOOD FOR THE GOP?__ by David Brooks". Retrieved 2008-03-06.
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h "Education crusader becomes McCain's new aide". Retrieved 2008-05-20.
  12. ^ "Governor Jan Brewer Appoints Chair of "Governor's P-20 Coordinating Council of Arizona"" (PDF). Retrieved 2009-09-02.
  13. ^ http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Lisa+Keegan&search_type=&aq=f
  14. ^ http://www.educationequalityproject.org/
  15. ^ "Lisa Keegan and New Way Learning Academy". Retrieved 2008-06-08.
  16. ^ http://www.americansolutions.com/Default.aspx
  17. ^ http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/curriculum/2009/09/two_million_minutes_in_a_coupl.html%7Ctitle= Ed Week 'Two Million Minutes,' in a Couple Paragraphs |accessdate=2009-10-13}}
  18. ^ To Save America: Stopping Obama's Secular-Socialist Machine. With Joe DeSantis.p. 289, Regnery Publishing, May 2010 ISBN 978-1-59698-596-4
  19. ^ "Education Week: Every Education Dem vs. Keegan". Retrieved 2008-07-27.
  20. ^ "New America Foundation: Education Policy in the Next Administration". Retrieved 2008-07-27.
  21. ^ "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer: McCain, Obama Advisers Spar on Education Reform, September 10, 2008". Retrieved 2008-09-17.
  22. ^ http School Choice in the Real World: Lessons from Arizona Charter Schools By Robert Maranto, Scott Milliman, Frederick Hess. Retrieved 2007-12-10. {{cite book}}: Check |url= value (help)
  23. ^ http://www.nctq.org/nctq/about/keegan.html "About NCTQ Advisory Board". Retrieved 2007-11-24. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)
  24. ^ "Arizona Helps Poor Children Gain More Choices, Center for Education Reform, April 4, 1997". Retrieved 2008-04-24.
  25. ^ "Lisa Graham Keegan: Who says there are no second acts in American lives?". Retrieved 2009-06-28.
  26. ^ "Lisa Graham Keegan and John Munger Do Education". Retrieved 2009-06-28.
  27. ^ "Bush to announce 3 Cabinet appointments Wednesday". CNN. Retrieved 2008-03-21.
  28. ^ "A McCain team could include some Arizonans, Possibilities: Kyl, Keegan, Peters, Woods". Retrieved 2008-02-19.
  29. ^ "State School Officials Form Unprecedented Education Leaders Council, Center for Education Reform, September 26, 1995". Retrieved 2008-04-24.
  30. ^ Webster, Chamberlain & Bean correspondence with Washington Times managing editor and national editor dated April 8, 2004
  31. ^ "The Education Leaders Council's Drawdown and Expenditure of Federal Funds, U.S. Department of Education, Office of the Inspector General, January 2006" (PDF). Retrieved 2008-02-26.
  32. ^ "Education Leaders Council's Subcontracting Activities, U.S. Department of Education, Office of the Inspector General, July 28, 2006". Retrieved 2008-02-26.
  33. ^ U.S. Department of Education, grant funding ledger entries for Fiscal Year 2006 and 2007.
  34. ^ "Following the Leaders IRS Form 990, Fiscal year 2006". Retrieved 2008-05-13.
  35. ^ Fletcher, Michael A.; Sandoval, Greg (2003-01-31). "Title IX Panel Acts Moderately". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2008-03-21.
  36. ^ bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2007/11/19/daily39.html?surround=lfn "Keegan, Harris join Maricopa County staff". Retrieved 2007-11-24. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)
  37. ^ "Athena Awards". Retrieved 2008-06-03.
  38. ^ "Understanding the Arizona Constitution, p. 114". Retrieved 2008-06-30.
  39. ^ "Phoenix Business Journal: Girl Scouts name World Award winners". Retrieved 2009-12-17.
  40. ^ Rothstein, Richard (2000-02-16). "LESSONS; A Conservative Picks a Path Less Taken". The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-11-24.
  41. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3hHQvkUhJo
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