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Date:         Thu, 5 Nov 1992 00:34:51 EST
              <EDPOLYAN@ASUACAD.BITNET>
From:         gallagherj@SATURN.GLASSBORO.EDU
Subject:      Election and who will be Clinton's Sec. of Ed.?

In New Jersey, there was nothing on the ballot concerning
education. Most elections were, aside from the presidential and
congressional ones, local and county offices.

However, I heard Secretary of Education Alexander on C-SPAN today
and he discussed possible future Secretaries of Education in the
Clinton administration. Governor Romer from Colorado was high on
the list. He is not my favorite but he is not the worst
candidate. That goes to our former NJ Governor Tom Kean, now
President of Drew University. Kean has left NJ in very poor
financial condition and he appointed the worst and least informed
Commissioner of Education during his last administration, Saul
Cooperman. Kean and Cooperman touted the *alternate route* for
certification and announced its *success* as a viable way to
bring people into teaching bypassing the traditional teacher
education route to preparation and certification. If you want an
inside look at that fable, read Smith's article in the Phi Delta
Kappan (Sept, Oct, or Nov `91 issue, I believe.). Most
superintendents I know avoid this program and state that teacher
education is the job of the colleges. They do not have the
resources nor the time nor the desire to get into the basic
teacher education business. In some cases, districts that had to
use the alternate route contracted with a local teacher education
college to provide the instructional services so Kean/Cooperman's
attempt to bypass teacher ed failed in those districts. Kean and
Cooperman also had testitous on the brain. We are now saddled
with a series of *proficiency* tests in our schools and much
curricula is degraded to *teaching to the test.* My graduate
students, in-service teachers, express much frustration over
this. Even though Kean and Cooperman are gone, their program of
testing still exists.

Kean is not an educator. Alexander is not an educator. Both
served in high administrative posts in higher education after
being governor and we know that those were appointments of a
political nature (even though Drew is a private university). The
only *true* educator to ever hold the Secretary of Education post
was Terrel Bell. Carter appointed Hufstedler, a judge and a
lawyer who complained about the jargon we educators used!
Imagine, a lawyer stating that! Bennett was not an educator,
aside from  possibly some teaching in higher education. (Did he
ever get tenure?) Cavazos was an academic in higher education and
a university president. He is a gentleman but he was completely
out of his element in dealing with politics and educational
problems in the K-12 sector. The White House operatives got rid
of him, just as they got rid of Terrel Bell.

What is the matter with our profession? We wouldn't find a non-
lawyer appointed Attorney General nor a non-physician appointed
Surgeon General. These positions require technical knowledge as
well as political and leadership skills. Are we educators in such
a bad state that national leaders do not recognize that we have
technical knowledge of merit in decision making? Shouldn't we, as
a  profession, provide the new president with a list of names of
recommended EDUCATORS for this important post? Who should be on
that list? What qualification should the Secretary of Education
have? Am I wrong to assume that the Secretary should be a
professional educator?

John V. Gallagher, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
School of Education and Related Professional Studies
Rowan College of New Jersey (formerly Glassboro State College)
Glassboro NJ 08028-1701
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