The Politics of Tom Payzant

Perhaps the most interesting thing that I found about Tom Payzant's decade-long tenure in Boston (PDF) is that his relative success makes liberals and conservatives both somewhat uncomfortable.

For liberals, the fact that Payzant did so well for so long without doing much in the area of community engagement or parental involvement is problematic. For better or worse, Payzant is an educator's educator -- he talks best and most to other educators, and he isn't all about decentralization or local control.

For conservatives, the problem is that Boston under Payzant did so well without pushing very hard for choice, or demonstrating any big interest in farming out educational functions to education companies or other stand-ins for innovation. He's a traditional education leader, working creatively but inside the box of urban education.