How important is the Secretary of Education? Some would say, "Not very."
The last two chiefs of education, Ron Page and Margaret Spellings, were noted more for pissing off the teachers' unions rather than for any policies that they authored or advanced.
Of course, these past eight years will be known for its Everest-like failures and monumental divisiveness in education (and just about everything else) rather than promoting the cause of education as a surefire way to advance through the American caste (err...) class system.
Once upon a time the goal of our educational system meant advancing through the various rungs up the ladder one rickety step at a time. It wasn't always easy, but somehow men and women, boys and girls, and children of all ages were better for their tenacity and perseverance. "What's good for the goose is good for the gander." (I'm still not quite sure what the heck this means.)
Although with the election of Barack Obama to the highest Office in the land, the thought is that he'll pick a smart guy like him. (Is there any sarcasm in that last statement?)
As a result, women's groups are banding together like never before to stop the egg-headification of the Obama's male inner circle. (Now, is that anti-intellectual or anti-misogyny? Does one trump the other?)
No matter what, the Secretary of Education will have an uphill battle to reform another national system that is nearing collapse. It's less fingers in a dike and more trying to fill up the Grand Canyon with a baby's spoon.
So, who will President-elect Barack Obama pick for his Secretary of Education? One name that has surfaced and been bandied about quite a bit is Colin Powell. Powell's most notable gig was as Secretary of State, which arguably is the most coveted and complicated cabinet level position there is.
Why would Powell want to take flier on this "no win" of a job? One could argue that he'd like to redeem himself for the dabacle of selling the second Iraq War to a nation of people with bumper-stickers that said things like "These Colors Don't Run" or "United We Stand" or "Bomb Them Back into the Stone Age."
Furthermore, why would Powell want to run this massive and dysfunctional do nothing department, a place with people that have been the scourge of teachers, parents, unions, and school administrators alike?
According to many sources, the Secretary of Education will be known as a reformer because she or he will have to put a considerable amount of thought into making the miserable No Child Left Behind (or No Child Left Untested) law work. This will be a very hard task for any rookie cabinet appointee elevated to Washington's power elite. Therefore, a choice like Linda Darling-Hammond, the noted Stanford University professor and educational advisor to candidate Obama, may get short shrift because she just doesn't have the kind of chops in the bureaucratic nightmare that is big time Washington politics.
What are some of the important decisions that the next Secretary of Education will have to make?
More on that next time.
