Lamar Alexander appears in The Bob Zadek Show excerpts in two separate policy contexts: as the sponsor of federal school voucher legislation and as a Senate committee chairman scrutinizing the Department of Education’s rulemaking practices. The excerpts do not present him as a guest, and no single episode develops a comprehensive account of his career or views.
The School Voucher Bill
In a discussion of school vouchers, John Rothmann described “Lamar Alexander’s bill” as legislation that would take $24 billion, or about 41% of current federal spending on elementary and secondary public schools, and allow states—not individuals—to decide how that money would be spent. Under the bill, Rothmann said, each eligible child, based on family income, would receive an average of about $2,100 of federal money. Rothmann stated that he did not know of a school, parochial or private, where $2,100 would cover an education, noting that most private schools in San Francisco have tuitions ranging from $15,000 to $30,000. He characterized the voucher program as destructive to public education and said he disagreed with the argument that it would help minorities, citing conditions in Oakland. Aren’t Men Entitled to Due Process on Campus? (2014)
Bob Zadek framed the voucher debate as a subset of school choice, a policy issue he attributed to Milton Friedman, who advocated breaking the public school monopoly and exposing education to private choice so that parents could pick the vendor providing education to their children. Zadek described the voucher system as one in which government gives money to parents rather than directly to schools, and he quoted Alexander’s formulation that government would pin $2,000 onto the clothing of the student, who would then spend the voucher either in a public school or a private school. Zadek said the effect would be to take funding away from public schools and give it to private schools, parochial schools, or whatever. Aren’t Men Entitled to Due Process on Campus? (2014)
Rothmann said that private religious institutions, particularly Catholic schools, push hardest for vouchers, and that California voters had rejected the measure three times at the state ballot. He stated his belief in a firm separation of church and state and said the voucher question creates an opportunity for religious institutions to receive public funding. He also said that if Alexander’s bill passed the Senate, taking $24 billion—41% of current federal spending on the elementary and secondary level—would gut public education. In his view, the program does not open up choice but limits it, and may lead to the creation of substandard schools without real supervision. Aren’t Men Entitled to Due Process on Campus? (2014)
Zadek challenged Rothmann’s premise that public education is per se better than private alternatives, arguing that in a competitive environment the marketplace is the best determiner of quality. Rothmann responded that the claim was “rubbish” and “absolutely ridiculous,” and gave the example that sending his fifteen-year-old son to one of the best private schools in San Francisco would cost at least $40,000 a year, while Alexander was proposing $2,100 for those who meet the requirement. Rothmann cited his own credentials—a Master of Arts in teaching, a secondary teaching credential from the state of California, and forty years as president of the Washington High School Alumni Association—and said the voucher propositions had lost at the ballot because they fail the ultimate test: they do not make things better, they only take money away from public education. Aren’t Men Entitled to Due Process on Campus? (2014)
The “Dear Colleague” Letter and Senate Oversight
In a later episode, Joe Cohn described how the Department of Education under the Obama administration used “Dear Colleague” letters to impose policy on colleges and universities without formal rulemaking. Cohn said the Department was trying to have it both ways: telling members of Congress that it recognized the difference between regulations, which are binding as a matter of law, and guidance, while simultaneously telling schools its perspective on what it considered a violation so it could choose what to go after. Cohn said this did not impress then-Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Lamar Alexander, who had himself been the Secretary of Education and had been a university president. According to Cohn, Alexander saw right through the distinction immediately, as did a number of his colleagues. Do you know your rights? (2022)
Cohn recounted that Alexander asked the head of the Office for Civil Rights at the time, under oath, whether the office planned to go after schools that did not follow its interpretation or advice. The official matter-of-factly said absolutely, they planned to go after people because they thought that was what the law required. Cohn said that was just not right. Do you know your rights? (2022)
The same exchange appears in a second episode with Joe Cohn, where Cohn again described Alexander as then-Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, noting that Alexander had been the Secretary of Education and a university president. Cohn said Alexander saw right through the Department’s position immediately and asked the head of OCR under oath whether the office planned to go after schools that did not follow its interpretation, and the official said absolutely, they planned to go after people because they thought that was what the law required. Joe Cohn on Title IX and Due Process on Campus (2022)
In that episode, Cohn also described the broader context of the “Dear Colleague” letter era: schools tripped over themselves to demonstrate to the federal government that they were going to be tough on sexual harassment, and they brought their policies in line with what the Department was saying. Cohn said schools were undermining due process left and right in campus sexual assault proceedings, and that this was the only context where the federal government was telling schools they had better provide fewer due process protections or their federal dollars might be at stake. Joe Cohn on Title IX and Due Process on Campus (2022)
Cohn also described the aftermath: FIRE filed a lawsuit in the final days of the Obama administration over the “Dear Colleague” letter, and it was eventually mooted out when President Trump’s Department of Education agreed with FIRE, withdrew the letter voluntarily, and initiated the binding process of creating regulations with notice and comment procedures. That process started in 2017 when the letter was rescinded, and the regulations were completed in 2020. Joe Cohn on Title IX and Due Process on Campus (2022)
Across episodes
Lamar Alexander appears in two episodes of the show, but the excerpts do not show the same question argued across them. In the 2014 episode, he is the sponsor of a school voucher bill that John Rothmann criticizes on policy grounds; in the 2022 episodes, he is the Senate committee chairman who challenges the Department of Education’s use of “Dear Colleague” letters. The excerpts show no development or change in how Alexander is treated between the earlier and later episodes, and no guest or host draws a connection between the two contexts. The two 2022 episodes with Joe Cohn present the same exchange about Alexander’s questioning of the OCR head, with no substantive difference between them.
What the sources do not cover
The excerpts do not state Lamar Alexander’s party affiliation, the state he represented, the dates of his Senate service, or the name or number of the voucher bill he sponsored. They do not say whether the voucher bill passed or what became of it. They do not give Alexander’s full title beyond “then-Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee” and the fact that he had been Secretary of Education and a university president. The excerpts do not include any statement from Alexander himself, any interview with him, or any direct quotation from him beyond the paraphrase of his voucher formulation that Bob Zadek attributes to him.