Annise, Gene, Peter or Roy for HISD Superintendent?

Maybe HISD should look to the Houston mayor's race for its next superintendent. Our new Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan is in favor of mayors running large urban school districts. Here's what he had to say about that at the annual conference of the National School Board Association today:

The education secretary didn't shy away from controversial comments earlier this week staking part of his effectiveness as secretary on increasing mayoral control of schools in urban areas, but prefaced his remarks with a tongue-in-cheek acknowledgment the board members might not agree.

"You are welcome to boo. Please don't throw any shoes at me," he said .

Noting the progress made in Chicago, Boston and New York schools since those mayors have gained control of the school systems, Duncan said higher engagement from city mayors and the larger communities are needed to drive real reform.

But the education secretary said his support for mayoral control doesn't mean he thinks school boards should be obsolete. Making the kind of progress Duncan said Chicago's schools have made in the last two decades would have been impossible for him (and Paul Vallas before him) and the board there to make with out strong support from the mayor and larger communities, including business and philanthropies.

"It's a false choice to me to say you need a strong mayor or a strong board," he said. "A piece of the answer is strong leadership at the top."

We have a Municipal School District in the Houston area - Stafford MSD, the only school district in Texas run by a city. Information about their student performance can be found here. Their ELA TAKS scores are good, but math and science TAKS scores are low in some grades.

I guess what I'm wondering is when Parker, Locke, Brown or Morales entered the mayor's race, did they ever consider they might be asked to run HISD (or any of the other school districts with the Houston city limits)?

A question about mayors running urban school districts would certainly be appropriate at a mayoral candidate forum. I hope it gets asked!