To the winners of the Fordham Foundation's Excellence in Education award winners.

John E. Brandl served for years as a former Democratic member of the Minnesota House of Representatives and Senate. There he was instrumental in enacting many of the state's path-breaking K-12 reforms, especially those that made Minnesota one of the first places to institute programs of education choice.

Marion Joseph served as assistant to California's state superintendent of public instruction from 1970-1982. In 1997, Governor Pete Wilson appointed her to the State Board of Education, where she served until 2003. In this position, she spearheaded an overhaul of the statewide reading curriculum and successfully transformed reading instruction in the state.

Terry M. Moe is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, a member of the Institution's Koret Task Force on K–12 education, and professor of political science at Stanford University. He has done groundbreaking research on the interactions of politics and education, studying and explaining a host of issues, especially focused on school choice.