My thoughts on Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Education; A Job for a Reformer; Who Will He Choose?; How dangerous is Linda Darling-Hammond, Obama's old-school, pro-union education guru?

Dear fellow Obama supporters,

 

I know I send out so many emails that nobody can possibly keep up with all of them, but if you read one email from me this year, make it this one.

 

I'm writing to share my thoughts on whom I hope President-elect Obama will pick to be Secretary of Education and, almost as importantly, whom he picks (and doesn't pick!) to be the Deputy Secretary, as well as three articles from the Washington Post, the New York Times and The New Republic that I think capture an extremely exciting and historic shift that's occuring. 

 

If you agree with me and are in a position to call someone on the Obama team, please do so THIS WEEKEND, as I suspect the decisions regarding the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Education will be made within a matter of days.

 

Overall, I remain optimistic that Obama will deliver on his promise to shake up the unacceptable status quo in our public schools (especially those serving low-income, minority students), but at the same time I'm concerned that he might be tempted to make compromises I don't think he has to make.

 

Secretary of Education

Obama's choice of Secretary of Education will be the single most important decision he will make in this arena, and I feel strongly that he should choose either Joel Klein or Arne Duncan.  Both would be great, but I personally favor Klein because the work of education reform is so hard and I've witnessed up close his willingness to fight the really hard battles.  Since I've never met Duncan and follow the reforms he's initiated in Chicago less closely, I cannot have the same confidence in him as I'd have in someone whom I've come to know as well as Klein.  I should note that in this preference I am speaking only for myself; other education reformers whom I respect and work closely with think very highly of Duncan and are optimistic that he would forcefully advocate for a reform agenda. 

 

The real questions that I'd want to ask about any potential Secretary of Education candidate include:

 

1) Is he/she a true reformer – a "disrupter" rather than an "incrementalist", to quote Rep. George Miller?;

 

2) Does he/she have the skills, experience and connections to maximize the chances of actually bringing about meaningful change?; and

 

3) Does he/she have the strength, courage, passion and willingness to run through walls and suffer endless slings and arrows to always do what's right for kids?

 

I can say with 100% certainty that the answer to each of these questions for Klein is an emphatic YES.  Based on what I've read and heard about Duncan, the answers are likely yes as well – but not quite to the same degree, with the same amount of certainty.  When it comes to helping millions of children who today are suffering in failing schools, I want certainty!

 

So why do I think Obama is more likely to pick Duncan than Klein?  In part because they're both from Chicago and I understand that Duncan has very strong, long-standing relationships with both Barack and Michelle (and, as an added bonus, Rahm Emanuel).  Given that the new administration will be focused primarily on the economy, Iraq, health care, etc., the importance of these relationships shouldn't be underestimated.  Thus, for the same reason I favor Klein in part because I know him much better, Obama might favor Duncan.

 

But, sadly, there's another important factor as well: politics.  If Obama picked Klein, the teacher union bosses will weep, gnash their teeth and get their knickers in a twist because Klein has been so strong in always pushing for what's best for kids, regardless of whether that threatens the interests of adults (who are, of course, accustomed to having their way).  Obama's team would certainly prefer not to get the nation's largest and most powerful interest group riled up in the early days of the new administration, so for this reason I think he's likely to pick a less controversial reformer. 

 

If Obama does, in fact, choose Duncan, reformers should still be celebrating because he's likely be a very good Secretary of Education – but I still hold out hope that he'll pick Klein.  If I had five minutes on the phone with him, here would be my argument:

 

1) You should pick the person who is most likely to bring about the greatest reform in the shortest time – PERIOD! 

 

2) Among possible candidates, Duncan and Klein stand out.  Klein has the experience, relationships and track record, both in NYC and Washington, that are unrivaled by any other candidate.  He's run the largest school system in the country – 2% of all U.S. public school students are in NYC – for the past 6½ years and has transformed it – so much so that the city won the coveted Broad Prize last year.  He has deep experience in Washington, was the CEO of Bertelsmann and, most importantly, no-one cares more – and is willing to fight harder for – always doing what is best for kids. 

 

3) Sure the unions stamp their feet, but so what?  You owe them nothing.  In fact, they did everything they could to squash your candidacy during the primaries.

 

4) Finally, it would send a powerful message that you're truly a New Democrat, focused on doing what is best for the country, even if it means angering entrenched interests in your own party.

 

Deputy Secretary of Education

The Deputy Secretary of Education is a powerful and important position, so in addition to picking a strong Secretary, Obama also needs to choose an equally strong, reform-oriented #2.  From what I hear, while Linda Darling-Hammond has no chance of being Secretary, but there might be a natural inclination by the Obama team to throw her (and the unions) a bone by making her Deputy Secretary, which would be a disaster.  Do NOT underestimate her: she's influential, clever and (while she does her best to hide it) an enemy of genuine reform, so she could totally undermine whomever is Secretary.  Let's be realistic – she's likely get some position in the DOE, but it must not be the powerful #2 position.  (For more on LDH, see the article below and my thoughts on her at: http://edreform.blogspot.com/2007/12/obamas-disappointing-choice-of-linda.html)

 

Instead of LDH, there are many other superstars who would be great #2's such as the following four people (listed in alphabetical order; full bios are at the end of this email):

 

n     Michael Lomax, the President and CEO of the United Negro College Fund.  He's been a teacher, elected official and university president, and serves on the national boards of KIPP and Teach for America, among others.  

 

n     Ted Mitchell, the CEO of the NewSchools Venture Fund.  He was formerly the President of Occidental College (coincidentally, where Obama attended before transferring to Columbia).

 

n     Andrew Rotherham, the co-founder and co-director of Education Sector, an independent national education policy think tank. He is a member of the Virginia Board of Education, launched the Progressive Policy Institute's 21st Century Schools Project, and served at The White House as Special Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy during the Clinton administration, where he managed education policy activities at the White House and advised President Clinton on a wide range of education issues.

 

n     Jon Schnur, the founder and Chief Executive Officer of New Leaders for New Schools, who is currently on a leave of absence to advise Obama on education issues.  He was a policy advisor on K-12 education in president Bill Clinton's administration for seven years, serving as White House Associate Director for Educational Policy, Vice President Gore's Senior Policy Advisor on education, and Special Assistant to U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley.

 

Obviously only one of these guys can get the #2 position, but all of them should be offered other senior positions in the DOE, as it's critical that genuine reformers are in key staff positions throughout the DOE.

 

Thank you for making a call this weekend, if you're able, and let's cross our fingers!

 

Sincerely yours,

 

Whitney

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Here are three AWESOME articles that came out today.  It's truly historic when liberal-leaning publications like these three are calling on a Democratic President to break with the most powerful interest group in the Democratic Party -- the Washington Post editorial even refers to "the forces of the status quo"!

 

1) The Washington Post's editorial:

We trust that Mr. Obama was serious when he promised change and will select someone who -- instead of just tinkering with a tired, low-performing system -- will be bold in choosing new directions for American education...

...Nor should opposition from the forces of the status quo scare Mr. Obama away from considering someone such as New York City Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein, who has helped improve the nation's largest school system.

We are not promoting any individual, but the ideal candidate would be someone who is not afraid to break with orthodoxy, who is more concerned with results than with ideology, who has a proven ability to lead large systems toward change and is passionate about regaining America's place as the best-educated country on the planet. It's encouraging that, in his nominations to date, Mr. Obama has been sure-footed and inspiringly unpredictable. He won't be able, nor should he try, to placate all the education interests, so he should focus on the only interests that matter -- those of America's schoolchildren.

2) An Op Ed in the NY Times by David Brooks:

But the union lobbying efforts are relentless and in the past week prospects for a reforming education secretary are thought to have dimmed. The candidates before Obama apparently include: Joel Klein, the highly successful New York chancellor who has, nonetheless, been blackballed by the unions; Arne Duncan, the reforming Chicago head who is less controversial; Darling-Hammond herself; and some former governor to be named later, with Darling-Hammond as the deputy secretary.

In some sense, the final option would be the biggest setback for reform. Education is one of those areas where implementation and the details are more important than grand pronouncements. If the deputies and assistants in the secretary's office are not true reformers, nothing will get done.

The stakes are huge. For the first time in decades, there is real momentum for reform. It's not only Rhee and Klein — the celebrities — but also superintendents in cities across America who are getting better teachers into the classrooms and producing measurable results. There is an unprecedented political coalition building, among liberals as well as conservatives, for radical reform.

No Child Left Behind is about to be reauthorized. Everyone has reservations about that law, but it is the glaring spotlight that reveals and pierces the complacency at mediocre schools. If accountability standards are watered down, as the establishment wants, then real reform will fade.

This will be a tough call for Obama, because it will mean offending people, but he can either galvanize the cause of reform or demoralize it. It'll be one of the biggest choices of his presidency.

Many of the reformist hopes now hang on Obama's friend, Arne Duncan. In Chicago, he's a successful reformer who has produced impressive results in a huge and historically troubled system. He has the political skills necessary to build a coalition on behalf of No Child Left Behind reauthorization. Because he is close to both Obamas, he will ensure that education doesn't fall, as it usually does, into the ranks of the second-tier issues.

If Obama picks a reformer like Duncan, Klein or one of the others, he will be picking a fight with the status quo. But there's never been a better time to have that fight than right now.

3) An article in The New Republic:

In November, Barack Obama bewildered education reformers by tapping Linda Darling-Hammond, a Stanford professor who had advised his campaign, to oversee the transition's education policy team. Their verdict was swift and harsh. "Worst case scenario," wrote Mike Petrilli, vice president for national programs and policy at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, an education think tank, the day after The Wall Street Journal leaked the news. "This is a sign that the president-elect isn't a bona fide reformer," he later told me. Kate Walsh, president of the National Council on Teacher Quality, confirmed, "The reform community is scared to death."

The "reform community" is an aggressive group of education advocates who argue that the certification programs which produce teachers, and the unions that represent them once they're in the classroom, have had too tight a grip on progressive priorities in the field for too long. Instead, they want to shake up the system through programs that bring in new blood and hold teachers accountable. They place their hopes in nervy, pioneering leaders like Michelle Rhee and Joel Klein, the chancellors of the D.C. and New York City public schools, respectively. In Darling-Hammond--an academic, union favorite, and vocal critic of Teach for America and No Child Left Behind--they see the opposite: an ideological enemy representative of a sluggish status quo.

Reformers are right to be nervous. During the campaign, Obama deftly appeased all sides of the policy debate. While appealing to the unions, which have long been bastions of Democratic support, he also gave great hope to reformers inside and outside the party by supporting merit pay and pledging to increase funding for charter schools. In asking Darling-Hammond to helm the transition--a precursor, some worry, to her appointment as secretary of education--Obama has suggested that he wasn't entirely serious about change, at least when it comes to education. It's a misstep that threatens to derail his quest for post-partisanship--and ruin a critical opportunity to revolutionize America's lagging schools...

...That may be, but, with Darling-Hammond as the point person on deciding how to implement the most important pieces of an undoubtedly evolving platform, it's easy to imagine reform-backed proposals falling by the wayside. That's why, even if she does not secure a position in the Obama administration, the symbolism and influence she has in this preliminary stage are troubling. Vexing education's boldest change agents won't help Obama substantiate his still-murky education reform credentials and forge bipartisan policies. And, if Obama does elevate her to his Cabinet, the appointment would leave lasting wounds, both among reformers and in the nation's schools. "Hopes would be dashed . . . if [the secretary of education] isn't reformed-minded," Williams says.

In The Audacity of Hope, Obama wrote that "ideological battles [in education] . . . are as outdated as they are predictable." Too bad he's just started another one.

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A Job for a Reformer
Will Barack Obama opt for boldness or the status quo in choosing an education secretary?

Friday, December 5, 2008; A24

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/04/AR2008120403655_pf.html

WITH MUCH of his national security and economic teams in place, President-elect Barack Obama faces another critical pick: education secretary. No names have emerged from the transition team, but warring camps within the Democratic Party are furiously seeking to influence the decision. We trust that Mr. Obama was serious when he promised change and will select someone who -- instead of just tinkering with a tired, low-performing system -- will be bold in choosing new directions for American education.

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December 5, 2008

Op-Ed Columnist

Who Will He Choose?

By DAVID BROOKS

www.nytimes.com/2008/12/05/opinion/05brooks.html

As in many other areas, the biggest education debates are happening within the Democratic Party. On the one hand, there are the reformers like Joel Klein and Michelle Rhee, who support merit pay for good teachers, charter schools and tough accountability standards. On the other hand, there are the teachers' unions and the members of the Ed School establishment, who emphasize greater funding, smaller class sizes and superficial reforms.

During the presidential race, Barack Obama straddled the two camps. One campaign adviser, John Schnur, represented the reform view in the internal discussions. Another, Linda Darling-Hammond, was more likely to represent the establishment view. Their disagreements were collegial (this is Obamaland after all), but substantive.

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How dangerous is Linda Darling-Hammond, Obama's old-school, pro-union education guru?
Education Wars by Seyward Darby
The New Republic, Friday, December 05, 2008

www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=2668834e-678b-4295-ae53-b8f2c236bd23

In November, Barack Obama bewildered education reformers by tapping Linda Darling-Hammond, a Stanford professor who had advised his campaign, to oversee the transition's education policy team. Their verdict was swift and harsh. "Worst case scenario," wrote Mike Petrilli, vice president for national programs and policy at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, an education think tank, the day after The Wall Street Journal leaked the news. "This is a sign that the president-elect isn't a bona fide reformer," he later told me. Kate Walsh, president of the National Council on Teacher Quality, confirmed, "The reform community is scared to death."

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Bio of Michael Lomax

 

As president and chief executive officer of the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), Dr. Michael L. Lomax heads the nation's largest and most successful minority higher education assistance organization. Through its headquarters in Fairfax, Virginia, and 24 field offices across the country, UNCF annually provides operating and program funds to its 39 member private historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and their 60,000 students. In addition, it manages more than 400 scholarship programs that support nearly 10,000 students at over 900 of the nation's colleges and universities. In the course of its 62-year history, UNCF has raised and distributed over $2.5 billion and has assisted over 300,000 students in earning undergraduate degrees. In 1999, UNCF received over $1 billion, the largest private gift to American higher education, from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to administer the Gates Millennium Scholars Program, which provides outstanding minority students with an opportunity to complete their undergraduate and graduate college educations.

 

Dr. Lomax joined UNCF after serving in a series of high-level academic and political positions. Immediately before joining UNCF, he served seven years as president of Dillard University in New Orleans.

 

Dr. Lomax went to Dillard after thirty years in Atlanta, where he pursued simultaneous full-time careers as a university professor and public servant. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Atlanta's Morehouse College (the alma mater of Dr. Martin Luther King) and, after receiving his M.A. degree from Columbia University and his Ph.D. in American and African American literature from Emory University, taught literature at Morehouse and Spelman Colleges and the University of Georgia.

 

At the same time, he became a prominent figure in Atlanta government and politics. He began his public service as an assistant to Maynard Jackson, Atlanta's first African American mayor, and went on to serve as the first head of Atlanta's Bureau of Cultural Affairs. In 1978, he was elected to the Fulton County Board of Commissioners. Two years later, he became the Board's chairman, the first African American ever to hold that position and served in that position for twelve years.

 

Dr. Lomax is a trustee of Emory University, a member of the founding Council of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African American History and Culture, and a member of the Boards of Directors of Teach for America, The KIPP Foundation, The Carter Center, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, the Studio Museum in Harlem, The Bill T. Jones Dance Company and the National Black Arts Festival, of which he was founding chair. President George W. Bush appointed him to the President's Board of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities. He has also received numerous awards including The Laurel Crowned Circle Award from Omicron Delta Kappa (2006), the distinguished Emory Medal, the Candle in the Dark award from Morehouse College and several honorary degrees.

 

Dr. Lomax and his wife, Cheryl Ferguson Lomax, have two daughters, Michele and Rachel. His oldest daughter, Deignan, graduated from Dillard University in 2000.

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Bio of Ted Mitchell

 

Ted Mitchell assumed the role of CEO of NewSchools Venture Fund in the fall of 2005, after having served on the NewSchools Board of Directors for seven years.

 

Prior to joining NewSchools, Mitchell served as the 12th president of Occidental College in Los Angeles. Mitchell's tenure at Occidental was marked by a dramatic improvement in both the College's national reputation and its engagement in the community, as well as by unprecedented financial growth. A former deputy to the president at Stanford University and vice chancellor at University of California, Los Angeles, Mitchell is a national leader in the effort to provide high-quality education for all students and has long been active in California and Los Angeles educational reform initiatives. He currently chairs the Governor's Committee on Educational Excellence, charged with making recommendations to improve California's system of K-12 finance and governance, and is President of the California State Board of Education. He also serves on the boards of a variety of nonprofit education organizations.

 

Ted graduated from Stanford with bachelor's degrees in economics and history, and also earned a master's degree in history and a doctorate in education there.

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Bio of Andrew Rotherham

 

Andrew Rotherham is co-founder and co-director of Education Sector, an independent national education policy think tank. Rotherham, who Washingtonian Magazine describes as being "at the forefront of U.S. education policy," is also a member of the Virginia Board of Education. In addition, Rotherham writes a monthly column for U.S. News & World Report as well as the widely read and award winning blog Eduwonk.com, which an Education Week study found to be among the most influential sources of information in American education today.

 

In 1998, Rotherham launched the Progressive Policy Institute's 21st Century Schools Project, which he directed until 2005. Under his leadership, the project became a leading Washington D.C.-based education policy center. It developed public policy strategies to eliminate systemic inequities in American education and to redesign American public education into a system based on universal access to high-quality instruction, public sector choice and customization, common academic standards, and accountability for results. The project's ideas have been implemented in national and state education policy. Washington Post columnist David Broder cited one of the project's major policy proposals as "the clearest evidence of change" in the national education policy debate.

 

Rotherham previously served at The White House as Special Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy during the Clinton administration. He managed education policy activities at the White House and advised President Clinton on a wide range of education issues including the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, charter schools and public school choice, and increasing accountability in federal policy. Rotherham also led the White House Domestic Policy Council education team, the youngest person to have done so.

 

Governor Mark Warner appointed Rotherham to the nine-member Virginia Board of Education in 2005. He was the youngest appointee in the modern era. In addition, Rotherham is currently a member of the board of directors of the Indianapolis Mind Trust and Democrats for Education Reform. He is also a trustee of the César Chavez Public Charter High School for Public Policy in Washington, D.C., and serves on advisory boards and committees for numerous organizations and institutions including The Broad Foundation, Harvard University, the National Governors Association, the National Charter School Research Project, the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, and the Campaign for a U.S. Public Service Academy. Rotherham is also a member of the Aspen Institute-New Schools Entrepreneurial Leaders for Public Education 2008 Fellows class.

 

Rotherham has published more than 100 articles, book chapters, papers, and op-eds about education policy and politics. Doublethink calls him "the go-to guy for those looking for serious, cogent, analysis of the latest education trends" and American School Board Journal says Rotherham is "one of Washington's leading commentators on education policy." He is a regular commentator on National Public Radio, and has written for a wide-range of publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Education Week, The Washington Monthly, and The Times of London as well as academic and trade publications. In addition, Rotherham has authored or edited four influential books on education policy.

 

Rotherham, recently recognized as one of the "40 People Under 40 to Watch" by Washingtonian Magazine, was born and raised in Virginia and educated in Virginia's public schools and universities. A graduate of Virginia Tech he holds a master's degree from the University of Virginia and is completing a doctorate in political science from the University of Virginia. Rotherham lives in Earlysville, Virginia, with his wife, Julie who worked in international aid and public education prior to taking a professional break to focus on their two young daughters.

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Bio of Jon Schnur

 

Jon Schnur is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of New Leaders for New Schools - a national non-profit organization devoted to improving education for every child by attracting and preparing the next generation of outstanding principals for our nation's urban public schools. Schnur was a policy advisor on K-12 education in president Bill Clinton's administration for seven years, serving as White House Associate Director for Educational Policy, Vice President Gore's Senior Policy Advisor on education, and Special Assistant to U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley.

 

He spearheaded the development of many educational policies in such areas as teacher recruitment and training, after-school programs, school reform and charter schools.

 

Schnur spent several months at Harvard designing the business plan for New Leaders for New Schools while taking coursework at the Graduate School of Education, the Business School and John F. Kennedy School of Government. He graduated from Princeton University cum laude in 1989 and from a public high school near Milwaukee, WI, in 1984.