Urban Education
By Daniel Strauss - Nov 18th, 2008 at 3:55 pmThe more I read about it, the more I realize how massive a responsibility an Office of Urban Planning would have. The office, supposedly, would be responsible for government policy of major American cities, and cities have to deal with a host of issues like transportation, sanitation, pollution, and housing. Dana Goldstein reminds us that education–the state of which is particularly decrepit in cities–also deserves the attention of this new office:
Another project for the head of the urban policy office could be working with the Department of Education and local governments to encourage states to revisit school funding formulas, which, due to their reliance on local property taxes, vastly disadvantage urban schools.
We badly need an OUP could be and the office’s tasks will be immense. Recently Ben Adler at The Next American City proposed a number of names for who could lead the office, among them Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York and Mayor Richard M. Daley of Chicago. At first I thought this was unrealistic since both mayors are institutions where they are. Short of extremely high office (earlier this year there was speculation that Bloomberg could take the veep spot on either presidential ticket, and a common argument against that was Bloomberg would consider that too modest a job for him) it doesn’t seem like either guy would leave, especially for a non-cabinet position.
But given the scope of what the OUP must accomplish, someone as successful as Bloomberg may be the only one up for the job. What’s more, Obama needs to find someone to head this office now, as there’s a lot to do. In Dana’s article she lists a few candidates but notes that nobody is perfectly prepared for the job: each candidate doesn’t know enough of one of the key topics required of the head of the office. The faster someone is picked and starts filling that knowledge gap, the better.
Post a Comment