Second group endorses Penny Sanders for Eduation Commish

Generally speaking, it's probably not a good idea to preempt the board's decision-making with campaigns for a particular Education Commissioner candidate. The problem isn't what we know about a particular candidate. It's what we don't know about other candidates.

But following the board's announcement of a state-wide search, on the heels of the Erwin error that ended a national search, perhaps these groups can be forgiven.

The Family Foundation and now the Bluegrass Institute have made their pick - Penny Sanders. If the board agrees, Kentucky will again be looking at its first woman commissioner.

Penny Sanders lead the brand new Office of Educational Accountability in 1991 - an arm of the Legislative Research Commission. Her OEA served as a constant reminder to folks "in the field" that education reform would be taken seriously. She is smart, tough-minded, focused and able to work both sides of the aisle. At the same time she is principled and independent, a rare but valuable combination.

If rumors are true - if Blake Heselton and Roger Marcum are automatically "disqualified" because they had the courage to challenge the state's funding of education (or, more to the point, challenge David Williams) - then Penny's candidacy looks even better.

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This from Jim Waters at the Bluegrass Institute.

She’s worth more than a ‘Penney’ for her thoughts

...Now, the board search starts over. And Travis said he wants a Kentucky educator to fill the post.

Then why didn’t the board hire Penney Sanders, who served as the first director of Kentucky’s Office of Education Accountability from 1991 to 1997?

Sanders brought more than 25 years of experience in the commonwealth’s education system when applying during the first episode of “Commissioner Chaos.” Yet the inept search firm hired by the KBE didn’t even bother to send the Harrodsburg native a letter thanking her for applying...

...I predict most of the candidates considered for the top education job will be passionate defenders of the status quo. They’ll think, act and react “safely.”

But Kentucky can’t afford this crossing-guard mentality when it faces a bloated education bureaucracy, failing test scores and a rapidly approaching 2014 deadline.

That’s why the board should seek out Sanders — who worked for 17 years in Jefferson County, the state’s largest district — and ask her to help them.

“I just didn’t fit the central-office mold very well,” she told me. “My passion has always been making sure every child makes progress every year.”

That passion results in Sanders supporting more emphasis on getting elementary school students to read and do mathematics at grade level.

“When students can read, the doors open for social studies and history,” she said. “When students can do math, the doors open for science.”

That’s what I really like about Sanders, her clarity and passion. No mumbo jumbo. No spinning. No painting a pretty picture with failure at its core.

She should have been Kentucky’s education commissioner the first time around. And she’s the right choice now.