What Linda Darling-Hammond's Appointment Means for Education
Democrats once fought to keep her from becoming Obama's education secretary. Now she's set to lead California's State Board of Education, where she could influence the national party's education stances
When Barack Obama was first assembling his White House Cabinet in late 2008, one of his top candidates for education secretary was Linda Darling-Hammond, the Stanford University professor leading his education transition team. Her selection would have been a rebuke to the leading school reformers of the time -- charter school supporters who fought the teachers unions to advance policies like merit pay based on students' test scores.
Darling-Hammond opposed merit pay, had a union-friendly focus on education funding, and was seen by charter school advocates as a threat to their movement. The pro-charter political action committee Democrats for Education Reform (DFER) worked to prevent Obama from picking her, deploying what The Nation described as “a highly coordinated media campaign.”
In the end, the president-elect chose DFER’s preferred candidate -- Arne Duncan, the leader of Chicago's public school system. But a decade later, the Democratic Party is increasingly turning against DFER-style reforms like charter schools and merit pay, and Darling-Hammond is getting another opportunity to directly shape education policy -- in the nation’s most populous state.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, nominated Darling-Hammond last month to lead the State Board of Education. Education experts say her tenure will be closely scrutinized in policy circles and could end up influencing school systems across the country.
Her fellow board members are expected to vote her in as president this week. The state Senate will then have a year to confirm her appointment, which so far hasn’t produced any organized opposition.
“She's an ingenious choice by Gov. Newsom, largely because Professor Darling-Hammond has strong ties with the labor and the social justice communities,” says Bruce Fuller, an education professor at the University of California, Berkeley. “This contrasts the Obama era, and even [former Gov.] Jerry Brown's reign, when one wing of Democrats was pitted against the other. Professor Darling-Hammond has the robust capacity to unite educators and activists intent on building equitable schools.”
Fuller says Newsom’s selection suggests he’s “not warming to charter schools,” which are publicly funded but privately run, unless they have the same regulations as traditional public schools. Indeed, he is already fast-tracking legislation that would require charter schools to follow the same transparency guidelines as public schools. Like much of the the Democratic Party, Newsom's education approach has shifted to become less favorable toward charters, which he supported when he was mayor of San Francisco.
Charters are intended to be innovative and free from bureaucratic red tape, but they divert taxpayer dollars from traditional schools, and many fail to outperform them.
Charter school opponents have mixed feelings about Darling-Hammond’s appointment.
“Until recently, I felt sure that Linda understood the damage charters and privatization do to public schools,” says Diane Ravitch, a prominent education CONTINUE READING: What Linda Darling-Hammond's Appointment Means for Education
