AUSTIN – Today, Kara Belew joined the Texas Public Policy Foundation as senior policy advisor. Previously, she served as deputy commissioner for finance at the Texas Education Agency.

“Attracting the top talent in the policy world has long been a staple of the Texas Public Policy Foundation,” said Kevin Roberts, executive director of TPPF. “Hiring Kara Belew continues that tradition, as she is a leading authority on school finance reform, innovation in education, and making good policies for what is most important — our 6 million Texas schoolchildren. Kara will make a huge difference on policy, and therefore, on the lives of our children. We are privileged she has joined our team.”

Prior to joining TEA, Belew served as the statewide budget director for Gov. Greg Abbott. Belew was also part of Gov. Rick Perry’s administration as an education policy and budget advisor. As part of the education team, Belew helped to pass and implement legislation to ensure college and career-readiness standards for the state’s public education system. Her work also focused on school finance and economic development issues.

“I am honored to join the Texas Public Policy Foundation, especially in this role which will allow me to utilize my experiences with the state budget and school finance to improve student outcomes across Texas,” said Belew. “As the debate on state spending continues, especially on education funding, we need transparency and clarity. I believe my work at the Foundation can help bring that clarity which will ultimately result in the best policies for Texas children and taxpayers.”

Belew was appointed to the Education Commission of the States and served on the board of the Texas High School Project (now known as Educate Texas), which created STEM and early college high schools statewide. She also worked as Gov. Perry’s director of fiscal accountability, where she routinely negotiated with the U.S. Department of Education and other federal agencies on behalf of Texas. She implemented procedures to evaluate statewide fiscal operations, tax and budget concerns.

Before her work for two governors, Belew was senior counsel at the Office of the Attorney General. In this leadership position, she helped prepare the agency’s legislative appropriation request and assisted with major litigation efforts, including the successful school finance case.

A graduate with honors from Southern Methodist University with degrees in accounting and political science, Belew worked for five years at PricewaterhouseCoopers, L.L.P., as a senior associate on major public accounts. She became a C.P.A. in 2000, and then attended the University of Texas School of Law where she graduated with honors. Following law school, she completed a two-year law clerkship with the Supreme Court of Texas.   

For more information or to request an interview, please contact Alicia Pierce at[email protected] or 512-472-2700.
 
The Texas Public Policy Foundation is a non-profit free-market research institute based in Austin. The Texas Public Policy Foundation aims to advance a societal framework that effectively fosters human flourishing based upon cooperation and mutually beneficial exchange of ideas and speech.

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