Benjamin Wermund is an education reporter for POLITICO Pro, covering federal policy and national education issues. He’s a Texas expat and a diehard Spurs fan and he has a weakness for margaritas and queso. Before joining POLITICO, Ben covered higher education at the Houston Chronicle and K-12 education at the Austin American-Statesman. He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin, where he worked as a reporter, editor and managing editor for The Daily Texan and spent a brief stint covering West Texas for the Big Bend Sentinel.