The St. Petersburg Times has the story. Eric Smith, the new Education Commissioner, is appointing a colleague to the K-12 Chancellor post currently held by Cheri Pearson Yecke. That switch becomes effective on Jan. 1, 2008.

What I haven’t seen in any of the various places the story has run is Yecke’s association with antievolution. They mention that she presided over the 2003 rewrite of science standards in Minnesota, but do not mention how closely the process had to be watched to prevent antievolution content from being incorporated.

No word on whether Yecke’s husband will be leaving his Florida government job, too.

Folks in other red states seeking high-level government functionaries in education should be on the lookout. I hear Texas is looking for a director of science curriculum, but that would likely be too low-level a job for Yecke to consider.