News that Denver Public Schools superintendent Michael Bennet may be on the list for Education secretary in the Obama administration shouldn’t be too much of a surprise.
Bennet has done a yeoman’s job in getting Denver’s troubled school district headed in the right direction, both financially and academically.
While we think he’d be a strong choice for the nation, the prospect of losing him now, as DPS seems poised to realize gains from the difficult changes he has made, is not something we relish.
The choice for Education secretary has been set up as a decision between reformers and traditionalists.
Reformers, the conventional wisdom goes, want big change and favor such things as merit pay and charter schools. Traditionalists are those more allied with teachers unions and want to trim back standardized testing.
During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama walked a fine line between those camps, nodding to some concerns from each but committing fully to neither’s agenda.
It’s probably not a coincidence that Bennet seems cut from the same cloth. In his three years leading DPS, Bennet has at times butted heads with the teachers union but has found a productive way to work with them.
A prime example is this past summer’s renegotiation of ProComp, the district’s pay-for-performance plan.
In the weeks leading up to the Democratic National Convention, the district seemed headed for a job action by the union, which took issue with Bennet’s proposed ProComp restructuring.
The changes were the right thing for the district. Bennet wanted to frontload the salary scale so salaries for newer teachers would compare favorably to those in neighboring districts.
It was an effort to slow the brain drain DPS experiences as teachers with four or six years of teaching head to the suburbs to make more money. The union balked, and there were sickouts and even talk of a strike. In the end, the union got something it wanted — more teacher planning time — and Bennet got the salary structure to best serve students.
There are other examples and accomplishments, but this one serves to illustrate Bennet’s willingness to take heat — how embarrassing would it have been for DPS teachers to be on strike during the DNC? — yet stick to his principles.
We wrote an editorial Monday about the type of Education secretary the country needs. Bennet fits that mold.
The Yale-educated lawyer with a self-effacing way about him has proven his mettle in a variety of forums, including as a deal-maker for multimillionaire Phil Anschutz and chief of staff to Mayor John Hickenlooper.
We wish Bennet well, all the while knowing it would be a loss for Denver schools if he’s chosen.
