Voters across the nation on Tuesday have their last chance to cast ballots in the 2016 presidential election to choose the 45th US president.
Back in May, a survey produced by the policy-consulting group Whiteboard Advisors asked leaders in education policy the following question:
"If she/he is elected President, who will Hillary Clinton's/Donald Trump's Secretary of Education be?"
The resulting report says the questions were answered by "insiders," the name given to the anonymous respondents described as current and former White House, Department of Education, and congressional staff members as well as state education leaders.
For Trump, some of the experts came back with surprising picks.
Notably, they mentioned Ted Nugent, a musician and vocal supporter of the NRA, and Omarosa Manigault, a reality-show personality known to fans of "The Apprentice," Trump's reality series, during which he coined his catchphrase "You're fired."
WhiteBoard Advisors
"I think nobody has any idea," Andy Rotherham, a senior adviser at Whiteboard, told Business Insider. "I suspect the survey respondents are in a state of disbelief that they are even being asked this question."
The answers were particularly interesting because Whiteboard posed the question to education-policy experts, not a uniformed group. Rotherham couldn't disclose the identify of WhiteBoard's insiders, however, because of a confidentiality agreement.
He did say that the insider group was made up of 50 to 75 current and former White House, Department of Education, and congressional staff members as well as governors and that there was a pretty even split along party lines.
For Clinton, Linda Darling-Hammond, an emeritus professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Education, was the top pick. Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, and Chris Edley, a former dean of the Berkeley School of Law and a cofounder of the Opportunity Institute, were contenders.
For Trump, former presidential candidate Ben Carson is at the top of the list. Andreas Schleicher, the director for education and skills at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and Tony Bennett, Florida's former education commissioner, were other higher-ranking choices.
