Yawning in Colorado

yes Chester E. Finn, Jr. / April 22, 2011

The Centennial State has a great track record in education reform--bipartisan, even--which is why it was so disappointing to so many people when Colorado didn't win Race to the Top funds last summer, and now it looks like we're going to be disappointed once again. Not by Washington this time but by the state's very own Board of Education, which yesterday named a thoroughly lackluster pair of finalists for the key role of education commissioner.

No doubt they're both swell fellows. One is a veteran school administrator (and current acting commissioner), the other a former Air Force general who has recently been running a mid-size district in suburban Denver. They have acceptable credentials. But there's precious little evidence that either is a dedicated reformer, a visionary leader, a rocker of education boats, or a fit colleague for the burgeoning crop of "chiefs for change" in places like NJ, NM, TN, LA, VA, RI and on and on and on.

Never mind Colorado's honorable past as a reform leader in charter schools, teacher evaluations and more. This is no time to rest on laurels. The heavy lifting is really just getting underway. (There's reason to worry, for example, that IMPLEMENTATION of historic Senate Bill 191 is off to a vexed start; there's reason to fear backsliding on "common core" standards; there's talk of canceling future assessment of student writing; the state's U.S. history standards suck. Etc. Etc. Etc.)

In short, it's a time for forceful reformist energy to carry Colorado a big leap into the future. And that also surely cries out for a bold move on the commissioner front, most likely an unconventional candidate from out of state, not conventional in-state veterans. If Colorado settles for such lackluster educational leadership as this pair of finalists would seem to indicate--all the more vivid when compared with ex-commissioner Dwight Jones--baby steps are the most one can hope for. Let's hope they don't turn out to be baby steps backward.

Category: Governance