GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

No hint of jealousy in a statement Klein just put out on the news about Duncan:

“Arne has been one of the country’s great school reformers. We’ve worked closely and I consider him tremendously dedicated, smart, and honorable. Our nation’s children will be well served if he’s appointed.”

David Hoff is reporting that the Denver and Chicago schools chiefs are getting background-checked by the Obama administration. How about our own Joel Klein? Through a spokesman, David Cantor, he just gave his answer:

No comment.

Klein also said he expects to be in New York City, which has been his standard answer as his name has been raised as a possible education secretary to Obama.

Background on Arne Duncan is here. Kate Boo wrote a great New Yorker piece on Bennet, which you can read here, but only if you are a subscriber and understand the New Yorker’s new archives, which I don’t. LynNell Hancock also posted a Word document here.

From today’s AP story:

“Arne Duncan actually reaches out and tries to do things in a collaborative way,” said Randi Weingarten, head of the 1.4 million-member American Federation of Teachers.

From Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter, in a report on Bill Gates:

Gates does seem to be weighing in on Obama’s pick for secretary of education. He favors choosing from today’s exciting collection of hard-charging, china-breaking school superintendents. One of those he likes a lot is Joel Klein of New York City, which is ironic considering that, as a Justice Department lawyer in the 1990s, Klein almost succeeded in breaking up Microsoft.

In case you were not fully convinced, it appears that, yes, Teach For America is flexing its muscle to influence Barack Obama’s Secretary of Education pick. The organization is concerned about the possibility that Stanford professor Linda Darling-Hammond, who has criticized TFA and is chairing Obama’s education policy committee, could get a prominent role in the Obama administration.

In a mass e-mail today, Teach For America urged alumni to “stay on top of about [sic] what is happening and not happening regarding education reform at the national and local levels.” The e-mail (pasted below) also directed them to the Web site of TFA’s new political group, Leadership for Education Equity, where alumni are invited to post comments on several Web sites (including this one), saying, “Decision makers do watch online reactions.” We hope so!

This is the site’s main graphic:

Here’s the e-mail, after the jump: (more…)

Chancellor Joel Klein smiled when reporters asked him what he thought about being mentioned in yesterday’s Washington Post as a possible Secretary of Education for Barack Obama. (He was mentioned twice: in a news story and in this column by Ruth Marcus.) The president of the teachers union, Randi Weingarten, who was recently named head of a national teachers union, probably had a different expression on her face.

She called the mention of Klein an “old rumor” that surfaced because Klein is friends with Washington reporters who don’t know the day-to-day realities of the city schools. She suggested that Klein would be a poor choice for Secretary of Education. “This is a period of time where everybody has to step up and share responsibility,” she said. “One of the reasons that the teachers in New York City are deeply troubled about Joel Klein is because he’s had a history of being a lightning rod.” (more…)