There’s a huge pile of work awaiting the next Secretary of Education. There’s the No Child Left Behind act to be dealt with, charter school issues, under-performing teacher improvement, accountability, a universal pre-K system, etc.
It would be great if higher education were a priority on that to-do list, but historically, nearly all of the previous appointees have had strong backgrounds in primary or secondary education. Admittedly, it’s a short history; Carter was the first president to appoint a Secretary of Education, so Obama’s Education chief will only be the ninth in U.S. history. Of the eight we’ve already had, only Lauro F. Cavazos, Jr., who served from 1988-1990, has had a background in post-secondary education.
Waiting and trying to guess at who will be picked is like some weird combination of high school prom (Who’s gonna ask who?), March Madness (Who’ll win the office pool?) and the weather report (read Chaos by James Gleick to fully appreciate how impossible it is to accurately predict the weather).
The not-so-short list of Obama’s possible picks are:
David Boren: Current President of the Univ. of Oklahoma; former Governor (D) of Oklahoma (1975-1979) ; former U.S. Senator (1979-1994)
W. Gaston Caperton III: President of the College Board
Michael Cohen: President of Achieve, a group that works to help states raise elementary and secondary academic standards
Linda Darling-Hammond: Top Obama education advisor
Arne Duncan: CEO of Chicago Public Schools
Christopher Edley, Jr.: Dean of the law school at the University of California at Berkeley
James B. Hunt, Jr.: Former governor of North Carolina
Michael Johnston: Director of the Mapleton Expeditionary School of the Arts
Timothy M. Kaine: Governor of Virginia
Thomas Kean: Former Governor of New Jersey, served as the Chairman of the 9/11 Commission in 2002
Caroline Kennedy: Daughter of President John F. Kennedy
Joel I. Klein: New York City public schools chancellor
George Miller: U.S. Rep. (D-CA), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee and author of the College Cost Reduction and Access Act
Janet Napolitano: Governor of Arizona
Hilary C. Pennington: Director of Special Initiatives of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Colin Powell: Former Secretary of State in the first Bush Administration
Michelle Rhee: Washington, D.C. public school system chancellor
Sharon P. Robinson: President of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education
Andrew J. Rotherham: An Obama campaign advisor; co-founder of the education policy research group Education Sector
Jonathan Schnur: Chief executive of New Leaders for New Schools
Kathleen Sebelius: Governor of Kansas
Diane Shust: Director of government relations at the National Education Association
Paul G. Vallas: Superintendent of the Recovery School District of New Orleans
Robert E. Wise, Jr.: President of the Alliance for Excellent Education