Secretaries' Day: Agency Heads Mull State of Education

By Erik W. Robelen

Durham, N.C.

What would happen if all the living U.S. secretaries of education were put in a room together?

Last week, former North Carolina Gov. James B. Hunt Jr.—who, incidentally, was rumored to be a good bet to join that exclusive group had Vice President Al Gore carried the 2000 election—and an audience here found out.

Well, almost. The very first secretary, Shirley M. Hufstedler, who served from 1979 to 1981, was sick with the flu and had to cancel. So instead, most of the former secretaries, plus Rod Paige, currently occupying that post, came together on the campus of Duke University in Durham Feb. 20 to hash over...