Former state board of ed superintendent who worked in the Bush Administration dead at 82

Ted Sanders, who served as superintendent of the Illinois State Board of Education and worked in the education department in the President George H.W. Bush administration, died Sunday, Sept. 8.

He was 82.

Sanders' son, Tony, who attended Springfield High School during his father's tenure with ISBE, took over as superintendent in early 2023.

A towering figure, literally, at 6-foot-8-inches tall, and figuratively, Ted Sanders also served as the chief education officer in Ohio and Nevada and was president of the Southern Illinois University System.

"Our father left a legacy of service to public education and to the betterment of kids and their families," Tony Sanders posted on his Facebook page, in a message also signed by his three siblings. "His impact on the lives of children across the country is undeniable, and we are so proud of him and his many accomplishments."

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Ted Sanders served as ISBE superintendent from 1985 to 1989, coming from a similar post in Nevada.

He was a deputy secretary of education under Lauro Cavazos and later Lamar Alexander in the Bush Administration.

Sanders had a rocky term as president of SIU, surviving two faculty no-confidence votes and ousting a chancellor from SIU's Carbondale campus.

Sanders left that position in 2000 to become president of the Education Commission of the States, a national organization that developed educational policy.

In 2016, Sanders co-chaired the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, issuing a follow-up to the groundbreaking report, "What Matters Most: Teaching for America's Future" from 20 years earlier.

Several of the recommendations, highlighted by Education Week in a 2016 piece, included more relevant and clinically based teacher preparation, with an emphasis on social-emotional learning, and more teacher-led professional development.

In a March 2023 interview with The State Journal-Register, Tony Sanders said his father and mother, Beverly, were "very emotional" when he was offered the position.

"Throughout my career in education, I've always turned to my father as one of my mentors and one of the people I could rely on for solid advice," Sanders added. "He has a good lens on public education from across the country."

Ted and Beverly Sanders had been splitting time between Colorado and Texas. Sanders passed away in Angel Fire, New Mexico.

Funeral arrangements have not been announced.

Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788, sspearie@sj-r.com, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Former state board of education superintendent, SIU president dies