(More information about Schwarzenegger’s “Education” Coalition – promoted by jsw)

The guvenator makes a hard right turn in appointing two far right conservatives to his education coalition. One of these appointments apparently has ties to the scandal tagged Grover Norquist and the Americans for Tax Reform (ATR).

Schwarzenegger named both Jim Kelly and Ron Nehring of the Grossmont Union High School District (GUHSD) board in San Diego. Rawstory has the scoop on the teachers reaction to Mr. Nehrings appointment.

The move has sparked an angry response from teacher’s union representative Bruce Seaman, president of the Grossmont Education Association.

“He’s certainly putting together a coalition of enemies of public education,” Seaman told RAW STORY. “Ron Nehring is working for Grover Norquist’s organization, Americans for Tax Reform (ATR).” Noting that Norquist has stated he wants to reduce the size of government in order to “drown it in a bathtub,” Seaman added, “His second agenda is to eliminate public education and go to vouchers. Certainly Nehring can in no way be looked at as a friend of public education.”

Here a little background workup on Mr. Nehring courtesy of the Center on Policy Initiatives (PDF).

Nehring and Hardage teamed up with the Pacific Research Institute to work
on policy issues, Wirthlin Worldwide to provide advanced training in message development and
delivery, and Morton Blackwell’s Leadership Institute to do grassroots training.

.
A little more:

Nehring regularly contributes issue-length pieces to Labor Watch, the anti-union quarterly of the
Capital Research Center, a Scaife and Bradley funded opposition research think tank in
Washington, DC.

Lastly Mr. Nehring was at NCPRR while a guy named Jack Abramhoff served on the board.

Nehring once served as director of development and public affairs for Ridenour’s Scaife and Bradley funded NCPPR, and worked for its Project 21, an initiative to find right-wing African American voices to criticize the leadership of civil rights organizations.

Bloggers were asking the right questions back in Jan 2006, Words Have Power pondered:

Nehring consistently attempts to steer reporters to historical ethical abuses by Democrats. It is interesting that not a single local reporter is questioning Nehring’s connections with Norquist, ATR and, ultimately, Jack Abramoff. Maybe it is time to connect one more dot in the mess that is the Republican congress of corruption.

My questions (doing my best Columbo eyebrow) are how does this guy go from being a think tank stormtrooper and member of a troubled school board to key appointments (State Board of Forestry and Education Coalition) in the Schwarzenegger administration in less than a year?

snark/ It’s nice to see Arnold is such a big tent, moderate Republican by these types of appointments.