A tribute to Carol Comeau

Posted by Matt Zencey, editorial page editor

Posted: June 10, 2008 - 11:27 am

Folks in Anchorage know Carol Comeau as the highly competent and respected leader of Anchorage schools. We may not realize how far her reputation reaches in national circles.

Here's a tribute given by Michael Casserly, Executive Director of the
Council of the Great City Schools. He came to Anchorage May 18, 2008 and spoke to a ceremony at Congregation Beth Sholom, which gave Carol its Shining Light award for public service.

-- Matt Zencey, editorial page editor

BY MICHAEL CASSERLY
I came all this way from Washington D.C. to say thank you to Carol Comeau for all she has done for the children of this Great City. But I
also came to thank the Anchorage School Board and thank
you, the people of Anchorage, for sharing Carol with the
nation.

You know Carol, of course, as the tireless champion
of public education and the relentless voice on behalf of
social justice and equity. She has led the Anchorage Public
Schools through a remarkable period of change. She has
boosted student achievement. She has helped improve the
public’s support of its schools. And she coalesced
educators across the state of Alaska—urban and rural
alike—to work on behalf of better schools.

At every step of the way, Carol Comeau has modeled
the best of what all of us what like to be. She is smart and
committed. She exhibits the highest standards and
unquestionable integrity. She is the embodiment of
perseverance and a paragon of civic involvement. And her
good cheer, sparkling personality, and effervescent smile
are simply irresistible. Walking down the street with her in
this city is like being with a rock star. Everyone seems to
know her and she knows everyone.

What always strikes me when I am with her, though, is
how humble and gracious she is.

What the people of Anchorage may not know is that
while she is doing all her great work here, she is also the
Chair of the Board of the Council of the Great City
Schools, a national coalition of the country’s largest city
public school systems.

Her position is an elected one. She was elected for
many of the same reasons that make her a star here:
flawless judgment, thorough seasoning, impeccable skills,
and the ability to lead and rally a very disparate group of
people around a common cause.

Over this last year, she guided this coalition as it
worked to fix the flaws in No Child Left Behind; she
worked to protect Medicaid funding for many of the
nation’s most fragile children; and she labored to provide
funds to repair and renovate the country’s aging school
buildings. She has also worked to champion the e-rate
program to close the digital divide among the poorest
school children and she has advocated for greater funding
for early childhood education.

She also presided over the organization as it filed suits
in the U.S. Supreme Court to ensure racially desegregated
schools and protect the rights of students with disabilities.
She has been one of the nation’s foremost voices on behalf
of English language learners, immigrant, and refugee
children. And she has never let us in Washington forget
about the needs of our Alaskan-native children.

At the same time, she spearheaded efforts to improve
how America thought of its big city schools. She presided
over the expansion of the National Assessment of
Educational Progress (NAEP) in the cities. She oversaw
new research on effective teaching and secondary school
reforms.

All the while she has spoken truth to power as she has met
with numerous Secretaries of Education and untold
numbers of Congressmen, Senators, and other national
leaders. Her message to them is exactly what it is here: she
wants better opportunities for all our children.

She has done these things and more as she worked
night and day for the children of Anchorage.

The truth is that Carol Comeau is a national treasure.
A modest woman of uncommon skills. A leader of integrity
who never sings her own praises; she is a civilizing
influence in a sometimes ill-tempered world. A quiet
person of deeds, committed to a noble purpose.

I flew all this way because I think so highly of Carol
Comeau. I wanted the people of this Great
City to know what a jewel you have in your school
superintendent. People all over the country hold her in the
same high regard as you do.

Carol Comeau epitomizes a life well-led. A life
devoted to children, family and justice, to progressive
thought and open dialogue, to tolerance and diversity, to
excellence and the access to it.

Congratulations to you, Carol, our beacon of hope, our
angel of justice, our Shining Light.

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