President-Elect Joe Biden will soon announce his choice for Secretary of Education. He promised to choose a person with experience as a teacher. He said he wants a Secretary who is committed to public education. Here is my choice.
I can't think of anyone better qualified to be Secretary of Education than Dr. Leslie T. Fenwick, other than Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond, who is chair of the Biden education transition team and has taken herself out of the running.
Dr. Leslie T. Fenwick is Dean Emeritus of the School of Education at Howard University.
She has been a teacher, a teacher educator, a scholar, and a dean. She taught middle school science in Toledo, her hometown.
She understands the most important needs of American education: adequate and equitable funding; experienced teachers; and a commitment to equity and inclusion.
I have watched her lectures online, and I was blown away by her wisdom, her articulateness, and her deep understanding of the needs of children, teachers, and schools.
Leslie Fenwick is steeped in knowledge of teaching and learning, and she knows the details of federal policy.
She is the perfect person to clean up the mess that Betsy DeVos created, to reverse four years of an administration that sought to demolish civil rights protections, to defund public schools, to fund private and religious schools, and to impose financial burdens on college students who are deep in debt or were defrauded by for-profit institutions.
After twenty years of failed federal policies of high-stakes testing and punishment for schools and teachers, American education needs bold and forceful leadership, not incremental change.
Leslie Fenwick knows that public schools are an essential element of American democracy. They are community institutions that belong to the public, not to entrepreneurs or corporate chains.
She will support schools instead of closing them. She will support teachers instead of threatening them.
She is a strong and clear-thinking leader.
She respects educators.
She is an inspiring speaker.
She would be the ideal Secretary of Education for the Biden administration.
If you want to show your support for Dr. Fenwick, please sign the NPE Action petition and tweet your support:
Here is the petition: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/dr-leslie-fenwick-for-us-secretary-of-education
For twitter: contact @joebiden @DrBiden @Transition46
