Whoever is tapped to be the next secretary of education will have a tough act to follow. Richard Riley, the former South Carolina governor who鈥檚 held the position since 1993, is respected by both politicos and regular folks for his integrity and down-home style. In September, Riley met with contributing writer Joetta L. Sack to discuss his legacy鈥攁nd to make one last pitch to teachers to get involved in policy reform. Secretary hopefuls, listen and learn.
Q: You鈥檙e by far the longest-serving secretary of education in the department鈥檚 history. Tell us about the job. What sort of skills does an education secretary need?
A: Well, the job has changed since I鈥檝e been here. Education was not a top priority for everybody eight years ago, and it is today. I had a period where Newt Gingrich came in and wanted to eliminate [the Department of] Education and the federal role, and we had to battle through that. Now, Republicans and Democrats have gotten to the place where they鈥檙e very into the subject of education.
[The job] calls for being able to have . . . a basic knowledge of all the different parts of education. If you鈥檙e looking at education from this seat, you see a multitude of things鈥攑resident, congress, governors and state legislatures, school boards and teachers and principals and parents. You really have to understand all that.
Q: Looking back, what do you consider your proudest accomplishments? Do you have any disappointments?
A: Getting Goals 2000 passed, school-to-work, the reauthorization of [the Elementary and Secondary Education Act] in 1994鈥攁ll of that really set a framework for the standards movement in all 50 states. The identification of low-performing schools [and] corrective action required鈥攜ou could not do that until you had the standards movement in place and fair assessment [systems]. Then to have the reauthorization of Title I that made it much more flexible鈥攏ow you can use it for after-school [programs], professional development. I am very proud with what happened with the E-rate. We think we鈥檝e handled [civil rights] in a good way. I鈥檓 pleased with our area of disability鈥攚e鈥檝e worked hard for the inclusion of disabled people in the classrooms. I think that that鈥檚 a good litany of exciting things that are out there.
The school construction measure is one that we鈥檝e fought hard for. If you want to talk about disappointments, that would be a disappointment up to this point, but I have every hope that we can get that in a final package at the end of the session. It鈥檚 the third year we鈥檝e been to Congress with it, but I think we have the best chance yet.
Q: You鈥檝e made sure you have easy access to educators鈥� perspectives by appointing world history teacher Terry Dozier to be your special adviser on teaching and creating teacher-in-residence and principal-in-residence positions. How does their input affect your agency鈥檚 work?
A: It鈥檚 just common sense to have a teacher and a principal on my staff so people here can bounce ideas off of them and ask the simple question, 鈥淗ow would this work in a real classroom and school?鈥� More importantly, 鈥淗ow would this impact the learning of kids?鈥� Teachers and principals are very pleased when they learn that they have colleagues who work in the department every day鈥攅ducators who carry their message directly to policymakers. Having an active teacher and principal in the Department of Education is a constant reminder to the rest of us as to why we are here鈥攖o provide quality teaching and learning to all students.
Q: Should teachers get involved in education policy reform?
A: If teachers don鈥檛 get involved, policies will be determined without their input. Educators are in the trenches every day. They know the students and challenges and have suggestions for solutions to some of the most difficult problems facing schools today.
Q: How can teachers voice their opinions on public policy issues?
A: Some of the best newspaper commentaries I have read have been written by teachers. These teachers not only wanted to have a voice; they had real solutions to offer. That is one important way to impact policy. Lots of folks read the papers, but voicing an opinion can take many forms鈥攆rom calling or e-mailing a legislator to writing opinion editorials to working in a political campaign. We receive many good suggestions here in the department, as well; some by letter, some by e-mail, and others by telephone.
When [teacher-in-residence Sharon Nelson] was a chemistry teacher in Waunakee, Wisconsin, . . . one of the things she found out from a state legislator was as few as nine phone calls to his office could make a difference on matters.
Teachers may not always realize this, but they really are the experts on working with children and understanding how they learn. They need to build relationships with policymakers to create a dialogue鈥攗nderstand each other鈥檚 perspectives and develop a strong product resulting from that dialogue.
Q: Do you have any idea what you鈥檒l be doing after your job ends?
A: I am carefully not getting into my future because it would interfere with what I鈥檓 doing, and I want to work hard up to the last day. After being here a while, you can accomplish more in a month than in the six months when you first came, so I鈥檓 really going to try to work hard until January.
