So who’s it going to be for Ed Secy, Obama?

By selliott | Monday, December 1, 2008, 11:57 PM

President-elect Obama has named a lot of cabinet folks lately, but there hasn’t been a name leaked yet for education secretary. Arne Duncan (superintendent of Chicago schools), Richard Dailey (Chicago mayor), Joel Klein (chancellor of New York schools) and Linda Darling-Hammond (Stanford professor) are getting some buzz but nothing official yet. It’s probably not a good sign for education as a priority in the new administration.

Newsweek has a good update on the two education camps and what they want (and fear) in an education secretary.

Hopefully, we’ll get some news soon.

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This is a beautiful story

By selliott | Friday, November 14, 2008, 11:39 AM

Alexander Russo at This Week in Education points us to a wonderfully written example of narrative journalism called Zach and the reading thrones by Cindy Lange-Kubick at the Lincoln (Neb.) Journal-Star. I just had to pass it on.

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Alarms ringing: Will Obama back-burner education?

By selliott | Thursday, November 13, 2008, 11:03 AM

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof today picked up on some nervous buzz out there that education is going on the back burner for the upcoming Obama administration. This is in light of education coming in fifth on a list of Obama priorities.

Panic may be a little premature, but I am on board with the general sentiment of Kristof’s column — that the U.S. must take steps to improve its low performing mostly urban schools if it wants to improve the nation’s economic future fortunes.

I don’t agree that Kristof’s favored policy approaches — killing teacher certification and eliminating tenure — would do much to help. But I agree with him that education must be a key component to whatever comprehensive national reform Obama may be planning.

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Who should (and shouldn’t) be education secretary

By selliott | Wednesday, November 12, 2008, 01:20 PM

There’s a lot of rumors and very little concrete information out there about who is being considered for U.S. Secretary of Education in the Obama Administration.

The sexiest name batted about is former Secretary of State and ex-general Colin Powell. The other names getting the most buzz are Arne Duncan, who heads Chicago Public Schools, and Jim Hunt, the education-minded former North Carolina governor.

Personally, I don’t think Powell is the right choice. But Hunt might me.

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New Education Secretary … Colin Powell?

By selliott | Wednesday, November 5, 2008, 11:47 AM

According to this Bloomberg News story, President-elect Obama may consider former Secretary of State Colin Powell for education secretary. The story sources this to Mark Halperin at Time Magazine, but I cannot find the original story.

This choice would be, to say the least, surprising. Bloomberg says Powell has a long-running interest in education, but if he has been involved in education policy at all it has been under my radar.

Powell is philosophically conservative. Would he, for instance, be a booster of vouchers and charter schools? Powell did lend his name to a Dayton charter school. Of course, it’s now potentially embarrassing that the Colin Powell Leadership Academy was forced to close for chronic academic underperformance and glaring mismanagement.

It’s also a potential concern that Obama would give this job to someone who has an “interest” but perhaps no real expertise in education. The issues in education are complex and nuanced. The education secretary shouldn’t have a steep learning curve.

Of course, this is all speculation right now. It will be interesting to see Powell is a serious contender or not.

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Check in on election night blogging

By selliott | Tuesday, November 4, 2008, 06:47 PM

Don’t forget that I will be blogging on the school levy, among other local election news, all evening at the DDN editorial board’s A Matter of Opinion blog. Check it out.

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Predictions anyone?

By selliott | Tuesday, November 4, 2008, 12:05 PM

So what do you think? Will Dayton’s school levy pass? Give us your prediction in the comments — yes or no and what percent of the vote for each.

Normally you would expect an economy this bad to work against a school levy in Dayton. But it seems likely that there will be a huge turnout of Democrats voting in the presidential election, a phenomenon that usually helps school levies pass. Which trend will win out?

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