GOSHEN — Former Rutland Northeast Superintendent and Vermont Board of Education Vice Chair Bill Mathis of Goshen has been named National Outstanding Public Educator by the Horace Mann League.
Mathis is currently the managing director of the University of Colorado at Boulder’s National Education Policy Center. His colleague, Kevin Welner of the NEPC, was also named the Outstanding Public Educator by the Horace Mann League.
The awards will be presented this Friday, Feb. 16, in Nashville in conjunction with the national conference of the American Association of School Administrators.
Mathis was a National Superintendent of the Year finalist and a Vermont Superintendent of the Year. To increase equity, he has worked on various state finance systems around the nation. In addition to popular columns, he has published or presented research on finance, assessment, accountability, standards, school vouchers and Constitutional issues.
Mathis reacted to the news by pointing to the continued, invaluable work of those in public schools nationwide.
“It is certainly humbling for me and Kevin to even be considered in the company of the illustrious earlier recipients of this award,” Mathis said. “Our work at NEPC is important, but it’s the continued work of the nation’s 3.1 million public educators that will see us through to a firmer and stronger democracy. That’s the nature of our collective work.”
The NEPC, housed at University of Colorado School of Education, produces and disseminates high-quality, peer-reviewed research to inform education policy discussions.
Founded in 1922, the Horace Mann League is named in honor of Mann, who is considered the founder of public education. The league’s purpose is to strengthen our public schools, and its members believe that the U.S. public school system is an indispensable agency for strengthening the ideals of our democracy and the most necessary unifying and dynamic influence in American life.