There’s a meme out there suggesting that I become the next Secretary of Education for this country. I use the word “meme” in the original sense where something gets repeated often. Some of it might have started from my pictures with then-presidential candidate Senator Elizabeth Warren and Julian Castro, but the more recent uptick ostensibly comes from Peter Greene’s Forbes article. In it, he takes on Liat Olenick’s original proposal – which then turned into a core tenet of Warren’s educational plan – and builds on it.

Greene has a few criteria that such a person should meet:

• A traditional public school teacher
• A venerated veteran teacher, at that
• A teacher who hasn’t been dubbed an edu-celebrity (an educational figure who amassed tens of thousands of social media influence in seemingly inauthentic ways)
• A person who has more years as a school-based educator than one who hasn’t been school-based
• A person who can delve into the big picture issues, the minutiae, and everything in between

And the first name he cites is mine.

On a personal level, I think my face fluctuated from mouth agape to eyes squinted. I laughed because Greene’s writing can toe the line between satire and factual without losing his audience, so I didn’t know whether to appreciate the sentiment or just laugh at the prospect.

But let me take him seriously for a few minutes.

First, I’d like to see presumptive Democratic nominee Joseph Biden displace current president Donald Trump as America’s president. We cannot take the polls as a sign that we shouldn’t vote. With mass voter disenfranchisement, Trump’s assault on “mail-in balloting” to put distrust in the process, and the postmaster general’s recent moves to handicap USPS, we’re gonna have to fight loud and hard for the next few months. Should Biden beat Trump, there may also be a fight to physically and legally remove the tenant from the White House.

There’s also a pernicious Trumpism / neo-white supremacy that will take decades to disintegrate from our country’s fabric.

While that’s going on, I presume there’d be a process of transition. I’d be honored if my name came up in such a search given that it would have been prompted by social media, the classroom, my work on equity and anti-racism, and an op-ed in Forbes. It isn’t just my social media feed that makes me qualified, however. A quick web search would demonstrate that I’ve not only served a truly public school for 15 years, but I’ve done plenty of work to at least merit an honest conversation.

And, as a middle school math teacher, I also have the temperament and skills to deal with chaos from multiple sources at a time. I’m not afraid of the pressure at all.

But, fine.

Let’s just say I became the Secretary of Education. I understand that the EdSec has different powers than the EdSec/Minister in other countries in that much of the heavy lifting happens at the state level. I also understand that the EdSec doesn’t have direct control of schools, but can use their pulpit and federal-level funds to influence and persuade states to adopt different agendas (as was the case with the Common Core State Standards). The person should know how to engage Pre-K through 12 and higher education platforms intricately.

With that said, here’s some things I’d immediately do and others I’d do in the long term:

• Follow through with The Ending PUSHOUT Act as laid out by Rep. Ayanna Pressley with explicit attention to the role that race and gender play in disparities in discipline
• Create a commission to look at discriminatory hiring and retention practices for teachers and other educators of color, following up on the National Summit on Teacher Diversity work
• Push Congress to eliminate student debt
• Push state governments to abolish corporal punishment until it becomes law across the country
• Double down on the civil rights portion of the offices with special attention to hate crimes and discriminatory practices across multiply identity markers including gender and (dis)/ability
• Promote alternative assessments for students that eventually replace standardized testing across the board
• Encourage sample testing aligned with the NAEP in grades 3, 7, and 10 in lieu of yearly testing
• Create more opportunities for districts to use federal funds for ethnic studies and culturally responsive – sustaining education programs across the country
• Hold sessions for parents in various educational settings to have an audience with me
• Assure that schools can adequately respond to multi-lingual learners and students with (dis)/abilities through boosts in funding and other programs
• Abolish and dissuade school vouchers as a function of our offices
• Leverage partnerships with state and federal-level organizations to amplify teacher leadership opportunities
• Work with teacher unions and associations and the CDC to assure safety standards for every school with special attention to schools in districts with high levels of COVID cases and deaths

But that’s a small set of elements I have off the top of my head. With time, research, and concentration, I can probably come up with dozens more, including undoing the current administration’s approaches to schooling.

Whether the person is me or not, I will specifically look for someone who is of color and/or conscience. I’d appreciate a galvanizer, an organizer, and someone who’s attentive to the needs of students first, school-based personnel/connected community stakeholders second, and everyone else can fall where they may. I’d like to see this person visit the schools “no one” wants to visit, including our shelters, prisons, and other non-traditional child-serving institutions. Furthermore, I wouldn’t want someone who’s already been the US Secretary of Education, a Deputy Secretary, or an Under Secretary. I’d want someone who can navigate the education activist spaces, the racial justice spaces, and the other enclaves we have in education with compassion, understanding, respect, and bravery.

Oh, and I still have EduColor. My advocacy isn’t going anywhere.

If people are saying “me” and mean any number of people who can do the job well (and with the same enthusiasm/vigor), then so be it. But first: get rid of Trump. Then we can talk.