[RE-PRINTED FROM THE CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION--Wednesday, November 5, 2008]
If history is any guide, Barack Obama will spend several weeks chugging through higher priorities on his presidential to-do list before choosing an education secretary.
And if he follows past trends, Mr. Obama is not likely to choose a secretary on the basis of higher-education policy. His nominee will be the ninth U.S. secretary of education, and nearly all of the previous eight were known more for their backgrounds at the elementary and secondary levels.
Only one had a background focused primarily on higher-education: Lauro F. Cavazos Jr., who had been president of Texas Tech University and dean of the Tufts University School of Medicine. Mr. Cavazos was named education secretary in 1988, the last year of the Reagan administration, and resigned in 1990, under President George Bush.
"There's been a big emphasis, sure, on elementary and secondary," Mr. Cavazos said in an interview. "That's where practically all of them have come from, except for me."
Key Names
Mr. Cavazos is among many observers who don't want to hazard a guess as to whom Mr. Obama might choose as his top education official.
Other education-policy experts suggested some names, although most said they were doing so without any great confidence, given not only the possibility of a surprise nominee, but also the traditional refusal of possible nominees to seriously consider such questions until after the votes have been counted.
The suggested names include campaign advisers, current and former governors and state education officials, policy-research professionals, and people Mr. Obama knows through personal friendships or home-state ties.
They include:
Linda Darling-Hammond, an adviser to Mr. Obama's campaign and an education professor at Stanford University, whose research and teaching has focused on issues of school restructuring, teacher quality, and educational equity. She is co-director of the School Redesign Network, established in 2000 at Stanford University to pursue and promote research that seeks to improve secondary schools.
Arne Duncan, chief executive of the Chicago public-school system, who serves on the Board of Overseers of Harvard College. Mr. Duncan is an adviser and friend of Mr. Obama's, as well as a fellow basketball player. The president-elect has touted Mr. Duncan's success in improving the city's public schools. Mr. Duncan also has helped Mr. Obama expand his appreciation of the potential benefits of charter schools.
James B. Hunt Jr., a former governor of North Carolina who served on the federal Commission on the Future of Higher Education, formed by the current education secretary, Margaret Spellings. A partner in the Raleigh, N.C., office of the law firm Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, Mr. Hunt focused as governor on early-childhood development and improving the quality of teaching. He also serves as chairman of the board of the James B. Hunt Jr. Institute for Educational Leadership and Policy, a part of the University of North Carolina that seeks to improve public education on a national level.
Janet Napolitano, Arizona's governor, who was considered a contender for Mr. Obama's vice-presidential pick. She cannot run for governor again in 2010 because of term limits and may consider a run for Mr. McCain's Senate seat. The daughter of a dean of the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, Ms. Napolitano has used her position as governor to emphasize elementary- and secondary-education policy, signing legislation that offered voluntary full-day kindergarten throughout Arizona.
Andrew J. Rotherham, an adviser to Mr. Obama's campaign and a co-founder of Education Sector, an education-policy research group. He is also a member of the Virginia Board of Education, which sets statewide curriculum standards, and served as a White House policy adviser in the Clinton administration.
Jonathan Schnur, chief executive of New Leaders for New Schools, a New York-based organization that uses educational research to train principals of urban public schools. Mr. Schnur was also an education-policy adviser in the Clinton administration.
Other Possibilities
Among the other names that higher-education experts have cited as possibilities are two former West Virginia governors who made education a political priority: W. Gaston Caperton III, president of the College Board, and Robert E. Wise Jr., president of the Alliance for Excellent Education, which promotes policies to help middle- and high-school students attend college.
Other Democratic governors mentioned as potential contenders for the job include Kathleen Sebelius, of Kansas, and Timothy M. Kaine, of Virginia, both of whom were seen as possible vice-presidential candidates with Mr. Obama.
Education-policy professionals whose names have come up include Sharon P. Robinson, president of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, a lobbying group that represents schools of education, and Michael Cohen, president of Achieve, a group founded by governors and business leaders to help states raise academic standards at the elementary and secondary level.
Among city school officials cited as possibilities are Joel I. Klein, chancellor of the New York City public schools; Paul G. Vallas, superintendent of the Recovery School District of New Orleans and a former chief executive of the Chicago public schools; and Michelle Rhee, chancellor of the Washington, D.C., public-school system.
The list of other local leaders who might receive consideration includes Michael Johnston, director of the Mapleton Expeditionary School of the Arts, in Denver, who advised Mr. Obama's campaign and helped found New Leaders for New Schools; and Diane Shust, director of government relations at the National Education Association, the nation's largest teachers union.
Those whose names were raised as long shots include Christopher Edley Jr., dean of the law school at the University of California at Berkeley and a former professor at Harvard Law School, who served as a White House domestic-policy adviser in both the Carter and Clinton administrations.
Another might be Colin L. Powell, the first secretary of state under President Bush who gave Mr. Obama's campaign a high-profile endorsement last month. Mr. Powell is a founder of America's Promise Alliance, a coalition of businesses, educators, and others working to improve the health and well-being of children.
Importance of Higher Education
Even if higher education is not Mr. Obama's top priority when choosing an education secretary, he still might want someone with a higher-education background, said Shirley M. Hufstedler, chosen by President Jimmy Carter as the nation's first education secretary.
The Bush administration has been too focused on testing standards, she said, arguing that a secretary with a professional background in higher education could help focus elementary and secondary schools' curricula on the skills and abilities that matter most in college.
"You need to have somebody who understands how youngsters learn and how teachers teach," said Ms. Hufstedler, who is now a senior counsel at the law firm Morrison & Foerster in Los Angeles. "Not simply teaching to the test, but teaching to the substance of whatever the course may be."
http://chronicle.com/free/2008/11/6631n.htm
