Sparks are flying in what is essentially a proxy battle over Zoie Saunders’ nomination as education secretary. Hours before she was approved on a 3-2 vote in the Senate Education Committee, former state board or education chair Krista Huling appeared before the House Education Committee dishing some dirt on the process that led to the hiring of Dan French in 2018 and asserting that Gov. Phil Scott “does not have a public vision for education,” and in fact, wants the public school “system to collapse.” The timing of her testimony, while Saunders’ fate lies in the balance, cannot possibly be a coincidence.

I wrote about that yesterday, but there have been developments. First of all, Gov. Phil Scott’s chief of staff Jason Gibbs apparently hightailed it to House Education as Huling was wrapping up, to complain to committee chair Rep. Peter Conlon about her testimony. This was reported, based on anonymous eyewitness accounts, by Seven Days’ Alison Novak*, and today I confirmed it with Conlon. He would not go into specifics; “It was a private conversation,” he told me, “but [admin spokesman] Jason Maulucci’s comments to Seven Days pretty much summed up the conversation.”

*But not, curiously, by the diligent Diggers at “Final Reading.“ To be fair, they had to save room in the column for the red-hot news about House Speaker Jill Krowinski’s new betta fish.

It must have been a hot little confab, considering that Maulucci characterized Huling’s testimony as “unsubstantiated lies from an individual with a demonstrated political agenda.” (Huling left the board in order to serve as campaign manager treasurer for former education secretary Rebecca Holcombe’s run for governor.) Which raises the question, why in Hell does Gibbs think he can barge into a legislative committee and upbraid the chair for calling a witness? He may run the executive branch, but committee chairs can call whatever witnesses they want. Even ones that might possibly have a bias. Which is, as near as I can tell, every last one of ’em.

It’s an uncharacteristically open display on Gibbs’ part. He usually operates with a touch more discretion. One has to think this has something to do with Fifth Floor concern over the Senate vote on Saunders’ nomination.

His temper doubtlessly took a darker turn last evening when another party involved in the last ed sec search weighed in. Former deputy ed sec Amy Fowler took to Facebook to write some scathing remarks about her candidacy for the job ultimately given to French.

Fowler was one of three candidates. Which means, if you believe Huling, the state board preferred her to French. (She has a 50-50 shot at being the candidate that Huling said “had us ALL most excited.”) Fowler recalled this unpleasant passage in the process:

In 2018 during my final interview for Secretary I was asked to name the best high school in the state. I named several that were well respected academically, for growth, for inclusion, for strong CTE programming, arts and competency based education. Jason Gibbs said I should have named “independent school” as everyone knows that is the best.

“Everyone knows,” my Aunt Fanny. Gibbs’ alleged remark seems to reflect a certain anti-public school bias in the mind of Phil Scott’s right hand. And, transitive property, the administration as a whole.

And then Fowler added this:

The governor didn’t say anything because he left halfway through my interview because he was double booked.

“He left halfway through my interview.”

Now there’s a guy who really cares about education policy.

Fowler’s reward for being a finalist for the top job: A month after French took office, he fired her as deputy secretary. French’s rationale was that he wanted to “streamline the chain of command,” but c’mon now. (Fowler now works as a consultant with a California firm, helping school organizations “achieve their improvement goals.” Sounds like something we could use in these parts.)

Anyway, closet doors are being opened and skeletons dragged out into the open. And the owners of said skeletons don’t like it one bit. You can see Huling and Fowler as disgruntled former employees if you like, but they served for a not inconsiderable period of time during Scott’s time as governor. Their disaffection seems to be grounded more in policy than pique, having seen from the inside that public education is suffering under this administration.

Public education, that is, as it’s defined in the English language, not in the mind of Zoie Saunders.