Former Gov. Jim Hunt says we can take him off the list of potential education secretaries in Barack Obama's administration.
Hunt says he’ll advise Obama on education, but he has no interest in going to Washington, reports Lynn Bonner.
Hunt’s name has appeared on several lists of potential education secretaries, including in Time and The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Hunt called Dome on his way back from a three-day stay in Seattle, where he attended a Gates Foundation meeting on education. Obama education advisors attended, including the leaders of Obama’s education advisory board.
"I just spent several days with the top Obama people,” Hunt said. “Many encouraged me to do it. I told them I would not go to Washington.”
Still, Hunt said he expects to work closely with the U.S. education department from his base in North Carolina.
More after the jump.
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Hunt, a four-term governor, is the architect of the early childhood program Smart Start. He expanded his education credentials after leaving office.
He is chairman of the board and a founder of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, a California-based think tank. He also serves as board chairman of the James B. Hunt Jr. Institute for Educational Leadership and Policy at UNC, which works on improving K-12 education in the United States.
Hunt talked with Obama during the candidate’s last campaign stop in Raleigh.
Hunt urged Obama to do the things he discussed in the education speech he gave about a month before the election, where Obama called for “giving every child a world-class education from the day they’re born until the day they graduate from college.”
In the speech, Obama talked about early childhood education, fixing No Child Left Behind, and spurring innovation, among other goals.
Hunt also suggested Obama “personally take a leadership role.”
“This is a man who spent a lot of time on the streets of Chicago and knows about good schools and poor schools,” and knows the importance of improving lousy schools, Hunt said.
His second suggestion is for Obama to have a close relationship with governors.
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