GOOD: Top Education official resigned over dispute with DeVos: report.

A top official at the Department of Education resigned Tuesday over an apparent dispute with Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Politico reported.

James Runcie, the head of the Education Department’s student aid office, resigned abruptly Tuesday night after DeVos asked him to testify before the House Oversight Committee about his department’s rising levels of improper payment rate for federal student aid programs.

Runcie apparently believed he was the wrong person to testify on the matter and resigned after multiple requests from agency officials. He had previously refused requests from the House committee to testify, as well as requests from other officials at the Education Department.

An unnamed Education Department official told Politico that Runcie’s resignation was baffling, with other Education employees confused about his reason.

“That’s what we’re trying to figure out,” the official said. “We don’t know.”

An email obtained by Politico said that Runcie “felt it was time to give an opportunity to someone else to provide leadership under a new Secretary of Education.”

My guess is that something’s been going on in, oh, the past 8 years or so that he didn’t want to have to defend.