New York City’s energetic charter school executive, Eva Moskowitz, met Wednesday with Donald Trump, as the president-elect moves to fill high-level government positions that include secretary of education.
Moskowitz is considered one of the contenders to oversee the nation’s schools.
Others include former DC Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, Rep. Luke Messer (R-Indiana) and former Indiana schools chief Tony Bennett.
Trump is a supporter of school choice and has proposed a $20 billion block grant for states to provide more choices to 11 million students living in poverty.
Rudy Giuliani, a senior Trump adviser, predicted over the weekend that the president-elect would be “the best thing that ever happened for school choice and the charter school movement.”
Moskowitz, 52, heads the Success Academy, the city’s largest charter network and one that consistently outperforms the city’s regular public schools.
A former Democratic City Council member, she has been mentioned as a possible 2017 challenger to Mayor Bill de Blasio, with whom she has clashed repeatedly over classroom space and other issues.
As Trump and his transition aides huddled at Trump Tower, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz surprisingly emerged as another possible appointee.
Trump branded him “Lyin’ Ted” during the GOP presidential primary — but is now considering nominating him to be US attorney general.
The president-elect’s former bitter rival was spotted at Trump Tower on Tuesday by Bloomberg News, which cited a source saying Cruz may be tapped to be America’s top prosecutor.
“[Sen.] Cruz is focused on serving Texans in the Senate. He was there today to offer help in promoting the conservative policies that were campaigned on and that he’s long fought for,” said Cruz spokeswoman Catherine Frazier.
Others said to be in the running for AG are Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama) and Kris Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state.
The latest surprise addition to the list of contenders for secretary of state is South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who supported another Trump rival, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, MSNBC reported.
Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tennessee), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, confirmed to The Post that he’s also “in the mix” for a role in the new administration.
“I realize there are other people who have been more centrally involved in the campaign and are also in the mix,” Corker said. “This is one of those things where somebody is making the first decision, not me.”
He didn’t elaborate, but Corker is also in the crowded field of potential picks for secretary of state, a job that ex-Mayor Rudy Giuliani also wants.
The name of John Bolton, former US ambassador to the UN, has also been floated as a possible pick for top US diplomat.
The State selection will also likely need to get through not just Trump, but his main foreign policy advisers — Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who is thought to be in line for national security adviser, and Jared Kushner, the president-elect’s son-in-law.
The Trump team signaled Wednesday it could be a while before high-level cabinet appointments are announced.
“You don’t form a federal government overnight, and these are very serious issues, very serious appointments, very serious considerations,” campaign manager Kellyanne Conway told reporters in the Trump Tower lobby.