Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

Colorado’s New Senator: Michael Who?

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This pick will make some of our resident commentators happy: Bennett has bought wholesale into the scores=performance, “merit pay”, and union busting approaches to education favored by several folks on this site.

Bennett oversaw the implementation of “ProComp”, a parallel compensation option for teachers in Denver.  About 2/3 of teachers chose to join the system, which includes a provision for the principal to give a whopping bonus to his/her favorite teacher.  Many teachers have problems with the system, and a teachers’ strike in Denver was a real possibility this summer.  Bennett’s official biography uses the terms “test scores” and “student achievement” interchangeably.  He has held the post for only three years (and will apparently break a promise to stay for at least 5).

This is a politically curious choice.  Bennett is relatively unknown outside of Colorado (though he was a rumored Cabinet possibility for Obama), but he does not have the heft of many other Democrats in Colorado who were seeking the appointment.  Blog chatter seems to mark Bennett as rather moderate, and notably ambitious.  Bennett forked over the campaign maximums to Obama, and while he apparently would run in 2010 to keep the seat, he would face challenges from a long list of Democrats, led by uber-popular Denver mayor John Hickenlooper.

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Comments

    • The guy has been in the trenches.  He has the guts to try something new, and the confidence to change course when things may not be going as expected.  He has a passion for his work, and he was out there ringing doorbells of at-risk kids.

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      p>I like his style.  I don’t know his views on the issues of the day, but he seems like a good choice.

  2. Much of what you say he has done is at least worth considering, and if 2/3 of teachers chose to join his program it can’t be all that bad for teachers.

  3. I still don’t know much about Bennett, but from what I’ve seen it’s pretty good. He seems like someone who is willing to try out and implement new ideas.

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    p>While I don’t yet know whether Bennett is a good choice, I would note that sabutai’s summary here seems quite slanted against him, and I’m not sure why. The ProComp system seems to have been pretty popular with teachers, and the unions have agreed to the idea. A bit more of the story is described by this article by the Center for American Progress. For what it’s worth, it seems CAP (a liberal think-tank) approves of the idea, so it doesn’t seem like it’s the sort of right-wing “union-busting” program that sabutai makes it out to be in the post. It appears to be a pretty good idea in a policy area that is in dire need of innovation…especially where all the major players (cities, administration, unions, teachers) are on board.

    • …95% (at least) of what Bennett will be dealing with has nothing to do with his background as an urban superintendent.  My main concern isn’t about Bennett’s inability to tell the difference between test scores and student achievement, but rather his political plans.  If he’s content to be a 2-year caretaker, that’s what I’d love to see.  However, given his record for ambition, I worry about a Democratic primary featuring a largely anonymous urban mandarin whose only hope of election is exploiting his unearned incumbency.

  4. Bennet was born in New Delhi, India in 1964. The circumstance of the exotic locale was that his father, Douglas Bennet, was serving as an aide to Chester Bowles, then the U.S. ambassador to India and previously foreign policy aide to President Kennedy.
    Bennet grew up in Washington, DC and attended the exclusive all-boys St. Alban’s school. He went on to graduate from Wesleyan University, and in between undergraduate school and law school he served as a body man to Ohio governor Dick Celeste. After graduating from Yale Law in 1993, he served in the Clinton administration as counsel to Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick, a position that included writing speeches for Attorney General Janet Reno. (emphasis added)

    …snip…

    He worked for six years prior to his tenure at the City of Denver as Managing Director for the Anschutz Investment Company in Denver, where he had direct responsibility for the investment of over $500 million. He led the reorganizations of four distressed companies including Forcenergy (which later merged with Denver-based Forest Oil), Regal Cinemas, United Artists and Edwards Theaters, which together required the restructuring of over $3 billion in debt.  Bennet also managed, on behalf of Anschutz, the consolidation of the three theater chains into Regal Entertainment Group, the largest motion picture exhibitor in the world.

    via David Sirota.

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    p>And from Open Secrets, there’s this info about the Anschutz Corporation of Colorado: $28,000 to the NRSC in March 2008, plus thousands more to Elizabeth Dole.

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    p>It’s fair ask questions as to whether this Bennet guy will vote with empathy toward the ordinary people or with sympathy for the billionaires.

  5. David Sirota:

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    The only thing that rationally explains his appointment is the emboldened power of political aristocracy (and, by extension, money) that is sweeping the country. By aristocracy, I mean all of the factors of aristocracy implied in its dictionary definition’s focus on priviledge. That means not just familial lineage – but also money, inside connections and academic/economic advantage.

    Bennet is “heading back to the Beltway” where he grew up “with the Democratic elite,”

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    p>A whole bunch of Colorado Democrats.

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    p>A teacher in his district

    “While I can go on and on touting Bennet’s potential for greatness, true greatness would come from finishing the job that he has started, and that is something we have not seen. His work on our school system has been aggressive, but it is not done. His Denver Plan calls for long term change, over decades, work that will now have go on without him.”

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