Eugene W. Hickok

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.

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."[4][5] 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.[6]

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.”[7] 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.[8]

In July 2005, Hickok was hired by Washington, DC-based Dutko Worldwide to head their education practice.[9][10] 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.

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.[11] 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.[12][13][14] 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.[15]

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.[16][17] 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.[18] On 25 March 2022, the Board formally voted to end its agreement with the MDC.[19][20][21] 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.[22] 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.[23]

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.[24] But this is contradicted by Montpelier’s original press release on the structural parity agreement.[25] 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.[26] 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.[27][28] Hickok’s Board has begun firing staff members who publicly support the MDC.[29][30][31]

• U.S. Department of Education Biography
• http://www.carlisleschools.org
• Appearances on C-SPAN