Patrick wants Cabinet-level education czar
Plans to file legislation to revive abolished post
Governor Deval Patrick will file legislation today to revive the Cabinet-level position of education secretary, a controversial post that has been twice abolished by the Legislature in recent decades because it spawned conflict and confusion over who oversaw education in the Commonwealth.
Patrick told the Globe yesterday that he plans to create the position so he can better coordinate policies across early childhood education, elementary and secondary schools, and colleges. The education secretary would oversee a new Executive Office of Education that would encompass the three areas, and be a voting member of all three governing boards.
The move, Patrick said, reflects his vision to create a seamless system that would support the next phase of education reform. Despite the fact that public high school students consistently lead the country on national tests, more than a third of graduates attending Massachusetts public colleges end up in remedial courses. There are discrepancies between what high school teachers teach and what students must know to succeed in college, Patrick said.
"I am a governor trying to take responsibility for that," he said. "I want the authority to go with it."
The bill, which the Legislature must vote on within 60 days, would give the education secretary narrowly tailored powers over hiring, long-range plans, and budgets. The secretary, for example, would approve the hiring of the commissioners of early education, elementary and secondary education, and higher education.
Patrick will publicly announce his plans to restructure education governance at a breakfast meeting this morning with more than 100 business and civic leaders at the Omni Parker House in downtown Boston.
The plans, if passed by the Legislature, would not take effect until March and would not affect the hiring of a new state education commissioner to oversee elementary and secondary schools. The Board of Education has interviewed three finalists for that post and expects to make a decision as early as next Thursday.
Patrick's plans also call for expanding the three education boards by two members each to encompass more diverse perspectives, he said.
The legislation would also give Patrick the authority to appoint the chairperson of the UMass board, and make the education secretary a voting member of that board. Currently, the board's members vote on the chairperson. In December, Stephen P. Tocco, an appointee of Governor Mitt Romney, stepped down as chairman under pressure from Patrick.
"The power of the secretary really lies in the ability to force collaboration and not dabbling within the individual boards," said Dana Mohler-Faria, president of Bridgewater State College and Patrick's top education adviser, who helped conceive the plans.
Despite past legislative resistance to the position, Patrick already has the support of key legislators.
"It's something we've been working on cooperatively for awhile," said Representative Patricia Haddad, chairwoman of the Joint Education Committee. "I see the coordination from birth right on up as a plus of this new system."
House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi said in a written statement that he hopes an education secretary would "promote greater educational achievement in the Commonwealth and encourage more cohesion and increased accountability in the system."
There has not always been support for an education secretary. Legislatures in the 1970s and '90s eliminated the position.
Even Paul Reville, whom Patrick appointed chairman of the state Board of Education in August, has expressed reservations in the past, when Romney failed to appoint an education secretary in 2003 after the Legislature balked at funding the position.
"Horace Mann and generations of subsequent leaders in the State House saw fit, for well over a century, to insulate educational policy from the ebb and flow of politics," Reville testified to legislators in 2003. ". . . No matter how well constituted, an education secretariat creates a competing center of power that vies with and against the state's" education commissioner and the Department of Education.
But Reville said yesterday that while he remains skeptical of an "all powerful education czar," he supports Patrick's proposal because it is "respectful of keeping some distance between the political process and the education policy-making process."
Patrick's education secretary would have modest powers that focus on coordinating education reforms from preschool through college. The secretary would be responsible for implementing Patrick's 10-year strategy, which he expects to unveil in the spring.
Patricia Plummer, chancellor of the Board of Higher Education, an 11-member panel that oversees the state and community colleges, said she is not worried about the division of power between a new secretary and the board.
"The more attention that is given to education can only benefit us," she said.
Peter Schworm of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Tracy Jan can be reached at tjan@globe.com. 