During the early months of Ronald Reagan’s first term As President of the United States, the African American men and women engaged in teaching and administering community colleges throughout the nation met in Atlanta, Georgia. The group, known as the National Council on Black American Affairs (NCBAA), had assembled to determine what steps we might take as a national Black organization to stave off Reagan’s declared promise to destroy the U.S. Department of Education (ED).
The department, which had only recently been created by President Jimmy Carter, before his defeat by Reagan, was being headed by the “thirteenth” member of the Reagan Cabinet, Terrel H. (Ted) Bell. Dr. Bell, a little known educator outside of the state of Utah, whose national reputation extended only as far as the U.S. Commissioner of Education before his appointment to the Cabinet, was seen by Reagan point men as the perfect individual to disassemble the department.
The NCBAA, which already had begun mourning the death of the newly-created department, indifferently decided to invite the new secretary to our meeting with less than enthusiasm and literally no optimism that any help from the federal government would be forthcoming. Much to our surprise, not only did Secretary Bell accept our invitation but he came, listened carefully to our concerns, assured us that the demise of ED was quite premature and that he looked forward to working with us in the months ahead. it was not long before his words to us in Atlanta were reinforced by his widely acclaimed report of the National Commission on Excellence in Education, A Nation at Risk.
Ted Bell was not the first person selected for high office by a conservative administration to he a disappointment to his bosses, but more importantly to he committed to serving the people of this country, to include Blacks, rather than the ideologues that put him there.
