With the news that President Obama has nominated Thelma Melendez de Santa Ana to be the Assistant Secretary of Elementary and Secondary Education, we have reached a milestone of sorts. All of the major k-12 education positions have been filled. And on the whole, it's a talented lot, generally reform-oriented, and diverse.
But there's one box that Obama and his talent scouts failed to check: There isn't a single state superintendent among the bunch. As far as I know (and tell me if I'm wrong), there's nobody on his team who has even ever worked for a state department of education.
That's pretty remarkable, significant, and, I think, foolhardy. To be clear, I share no particular love for state education agencies. These classic bureaucracies are easy to hate. But there's no getting around the fact that if you work for the federal government and want to influence local school districts, there's no getting around the states.
Well, almost no getting around them. It's true that the feds sometimes make grants directly to local school districts, and no doubt Arne & Company will do so through its slush fund innovation fund. But for the big bucks, including Title I, special education, the bulk of the stimulus dollars, and more, the states are indispensable. They apply for the grants (or not! ), they shuffle the money to the districts, they provide technical assistance, they monitor what's happening on the ground. And if they are not on board with Uncle Sam's policies, they can pretty well thwart the whole thing.
Consider how surprised Team Obama seems to be that only 13 states have applied for stimulus funds so far. Maybe if they had an state education agency (SEA) person on their team they'd know that the state agencies are hemorrhaging staff right now, thanks to state budget cuts, which makes even relatively simple tasks like this one more difficult.
Perhaps it's not surprising that Arne wouldn't hire a state supe for a top job. As Chicago's superintendent, he probably hated the Illinois Department of Education , just like most urban leaders hate dealing with meddlesome (and sometimes incompetent) state leaders. Call this the local superintendents' revenge. But eventually, I suspect, he'll discover that he needs the SEA perspective nonetheless. And "chief state school officers," he'll come calling for one of you.
