Mike Petrilli is thinking ahead over at Flypaper. He’s trying to figure out who the next secretary of education might be under a McCain or Obama administration.
He’s got some good guesses but I would only add — Please, let it not be Huckabee.
Take it from an Arkansan. Unless you like huge spending increases with little achievement improvement, hostility to vouchers and charters, consolidation of small school districts, and an odd interest in music education which he tried to promote in a conference call with country musicians who all learned music in church and not in school… Huckabee wouldn’t be your pick.
Jay P. Greene's Blog 
The next president might want to look locally and choose Michelle Rhee, the new chief of DC public schools. Rhee closed 23 schools in her first year as the head of the District of Columbia’s public schools, fired 36 principals and cut 15 percent — about 121 jobs — from the central office staff. She sent termination letters to 750 teachers and teachers aides who missed a certification deadline.
According to CNN she wants to solicit funds from the Gates Foundation to make DC teachers the best paid in the country. Veteran teachers would have to give up seniority and teach under probation to qualify. Rhee has also indicated that while she supports pay-for-performance, she doesn’t think it should only linked to standardized test scores.
(NOTE Those interested in this might also take note of what happened in North High School last year in Denver when the entire staff received pink slips. The admin. simply hired back those it wanted to keep and got rid of the dead weight. As it turned out, probably 2/3 to 3/4 of the teachers – tenured and union – were shown the door.)
School reform is possible, and hopefully Rhee is on the right track
Just an off the wall guess.
You won’t do any better at guessing a name (never mind the position) that most people will recognize any better than than the did “Palin”.
Another off the wall guess: Today’s “In” is late January’s “Out”.
And vice versa.
[…] Fellows blog, including the Education-Secretary speculation afoot at this one. More Huck love here. Jay P. Greene says "Please, let it not be […]
[…] and thinking of who might serve as the next U.S. secretary of education. Greene’s pick? Anyone but former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee: Take it from an Arkansan. Unless you like huge spending increases with little achievement […]
We need ONE school district for the entire state. These petty fiefdoms aren’t democracy in action, they’re cronyism and sports-boosterism.
Perhaps we could avoid these huge spending increases with little corresponding academic achievement if we realized the efficiencies that are such low-hanging fruit.
As long as we have a culture that values football and local bureaucracy over rigorous academics and statewide standards, we’ll continue to be MIA from the knowledge economy.