Columnist Richard Cohen caught my eye today by endorsing Al Gore for secretary of state, but much of his column is spent suggesting Joel Klein for secretary of education:
...next to Gore at State, nothing would show how much the Obama administration will break from the past than by elevating the secretary of education to the inner Cabinet. My choice: Joel Klein , New York City's schools chancellor.Many people lament all the energy that is not being drilled for offshore and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge . But far fewer people get as exercised over the brainpower that is not being tapped in this country on account of an inexcusably awful education system. Klein would change that by, among other things, altering the way teachers are compensated. Good teachers would earn more than average teachers and teachers who want to teach in the toughest, meanest and most desperate schools would earn most of all.
Teachers unions -- another Democratic Party interest group -- hate merit pay, so here's another opportunity for Obama to prove his mettle. The object is to reverse the current situation, in which most teachers are recruited from the bottom quarter of college classes, and instead go for the top quarter -- as do Finland and South Korea, two countries with excellent education systems.
It's a sad commentary on our schools that Obama is probably going to have to send his girls to a private school in Washington. It's also inexpressibly sad that so many kids pass through school -- and go straight to jail, often leaving a victim in their wake. It's good that Klein's belief that public education can be redeemed is so deep that he quit a high-paying job in private industry to take on the immense New York school system.
Cohen also endorses Lawrence Summers for Treasury. Given the enemies each has made, Summers, Gore, and Klein each would be entertaining nominations, at the least.
