To the Editor:
Could Education Week provide us with more detailed background information on our designated new U.S. secretary of education (“President Picks a Trusted Aide for Secretary,” Nov. 24, 2004)? What experience does she have in education other than as a lobbyist or career politician? Does it matter? Why or why not? Could the country have a surgeon general who had no experience in medicine?
Renee Moore
Cleveland, Miss.
To the Editor:
After reading about Margaret Spellings’ nomination to head the U.S. Department of Education, I have to wonder why the education community isn’t protesting loudly that the new secretary has just a bachelor’s degree, and that in political science, not in education. Too bad. One would think that the position would require advanced and related academic credentials, such as those possessed by the current secretary of education, Rod Paige, and by Eugene W. Hickok, his deputy secretary.
Charles Bloomfield
Allentown, Pa.
