Who will be Secretary of Education?

by desertjim

The incoming Obama administration made lots of news last week by naming the economic team that will be taking over at the end of January. Other probable appointments like Tom Daschle for Health and Human Services and Bill Richardson for Commerce have been leaked to the press. However, the choice for Secretary of Education seems to be very much in doubt. The number of possible candidates listed in TIME magazine, on Yahoo, and in the political blogs is lengthy.

For those of you who haven’t been paying attention, here is the list I cobbled together:

Howard Dean, former governor and chairman of the Democratic Pary
Joel Klein, chancellor of the New York City schools
Linda Darling-Hammond, education advisor to the Obama campaign
Arne Duncan, CEO of Chicago Public Schools
Wendy Kopp, founder and chairman of Teach for America
Michelle Rhee, chancellor of the Washington, DC public school system
Christopher Edley, Jr., Dean of the Law School at University of California, Berkeley
James B. Hunt, Jr., Former governor of North Carolina
Caroline Kennedy, member of the Obama campaign’s vice-presidential search committee
Johnathan Schnur, Chief executive of New Leaders for New Schools

There are probably other names floating around out there, but these seem to be the most commonly mentioned. Janet Napolitano (governor of Arizona) was on earlier lists, but she will be taking over as head of Homeland Security. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell was also mentioned, but he has stated clearly that he has no interest in further service in DC.

Whoever takes over will be only the ninth Secretary of Education. Education was promoted to cabinet rank during the administration of Jimmy Carter. As educators, should we be looking for an educational administrator like Klein or Rhee, an education reformer like Kopp or Darling-Hammond, a college educator like Edley, or a politician like Dean?

Labels:

Read more in the archives»