Controversy is brewing over President Bush's choice of sociologist Robert Lerner as the next Commissioner of Education Statistics and the Senate may well fuss about him during the confirmation process. He happens to be a first rate scholar with two decades of distinguished work under his belt, much of it in education and much of it relying on - believe it or not - federal education statistics. This would make him the first commissioner of education statistics in memory who is a serious consumer of the very product that he will, in this new role, be responsible for gathering, analyzing, and disseminating. One might, therefore, think him superbly qualified for the post. Rather than nominating a civil servant or practicing educator, the Bush administration has opted for a bona fide expert. The problem is that some of Lerner's scholarship hints at what Education Daily terms "conservative stances" and allegations are flying that his confirmation would undermine the mandate of the National Center for Education Statistics (as re-stated in the recent Education Sciences Reform Act) to produce information "in a manner that is objective, secular, neutral, nonideological," etc. Yet the only statutory requirement for the commissioner him/herself is that such a person "shall be highly qualified and have substantial knowledge of statistical methodologies and activities undertaken by the Statistics Center." Lerner fits that description better than any of his (modern) predecessors in this key role.
"Intended nominee may fail neutrality proviso," Education Daily, June 6, 2003 (subscription required)
"Ed. Dept's No. 2 official announces resignation," by Erik W. Robelen, Sean Cavanagh, and Michelle R. David, Education Week, June 6, 2003