Gerald Zahorchak

Who is Gerald Zahorchak?

Gerald L. Zahorchak is an American educator and the former Secretary of Education for the Pennsylvania Department of Education, a position he held from 2006 to 2010. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Zahorchak worked at various Pennsylvania public school districts in a number of positions, including teacher, football coach, principal, federal programs director, strategic planning coordinator and personnel director. Zahorchak worked as superintendent of the Greater Johnstown School District in Cambria County from 1997 to 2003, when he was chosen to be Deputy Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education for the state. Governor Ed Rendell appointed him Secretary of Education in 2005.

During his tenure as secretary, Zahorchak implemented state funding for pre-kindergarten and full-day kindergarten, developed a new school funding formula, helped increase education funding for school districts, and established the Keystone Exams and the state's Standards Aligned System. In 2010, Zahorchak announced he would leave the Secretary of Education position, coinciding with Rendell's pending departure from the governorship. On April 22, 2010, Zahorchak was selected to be superintendent of the Allentown School District in Allentown, Pennsylvania, where he vowed to establish regular updates to families about their students education, improve safety in schools and implement incentives to attract qualified minorities and top education students into teaching positions.