HARRISBURG — Gov.-elect Tom Corbett is turning once more to veterans of former Gov. Tom Ridge’s administration, saying Thursday that he is picking two of Ridge’s one-time aides to head Pennsylvania’s Education and Insurance departments.

Corbett, a Republican, will nominate Ronald Tomalis to run the education agency that is overseeing about $15 billion in state and federal money for Pennsylvania’s public schools, charter schools, universities and colleges.

He also will nominate lawyer Michael Consedine as insurance commissioner at a time when states are required by last year’s federal health care law to develop a new insurance marketplace by 2014 so small businesses, the self-employed and the uninsured can buy health coverage.

Corbett, the state’s sitting attorney general, takes office Tuesday.

Tomalis, 48, comes from a Washington, D.C.-based education policy consulting firm, Whiteboard Advisors. He previously worked in the U.S. Department of Education under President George W. Bush, where he helped manage the implementation of the federal No Child Left Behind Law, and held a senior position in Ridge’s Education Department.

With a Corbett administration poised to make school vouchers and other taxpayer-financed alternatives to public schools a top priority, Tomalis could be front and center in the debate.

Senate Education Committee Chairman Jeffrey Piccola, R-Dauphin, lauded Corbett’s choice, saying Tomalis has an “impressive policy record and wealth of experience.”

“I am also pleased that the nominee brings a proven record for education reform — a record and passion that will serve our families and taxpayers well,” said Piccola, who plans to introduce a school-voucher bill that would help children of low-income families to attend the public, private or parochial school of their choice at taxpayer expense.

Tim Allwein, the assistant executive director of the Pennsylvania School Boards Association, called Tomalis accessible and open to discussion on policy issues.

“We’ve had a good working relationship with him and we think it’s a good pick,” said Allwein, whose organization opposes school vouchers.

As Corbett continues to assemble a Cabinet, he already has picked a budget secretary and a secretary of administration who served under Ridge, and his transition team’s two co-directors also have close ties to Ridge.

Consedine, 41, is a partner in the Harrisburg office of the law firm Saul Ewing LLP, where he is vice chair of the firm’s insurance practice group. Under Ridge, Consedine was a lawyer for the Insurance Department.

At Saul Ewing, his clients have ranged from large international companies to a group of nuns who lost their automobile insurance, he said Thursday. Consedine has never worked for an insurance company, and said his private law practice has focused on health care and property and casualty insurance.