LEAVE IT to the Founders, who had
Mr. Jennings, whose Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools handles millions of dollars in grant money, has spent much of his career as an educator attempting to increase tolerance of homosexuality in schools. The founder of the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, he tells in one of his books of an incident that occurred when he was a young high-school teacher. A student reportedly told him that he, the student, was tired because he'd met an older man in a bus-station restroom and had gone home with him, presumably not to get eight hours of shuteye. Mr. Jennings says he responded, "I hope you knew to use a condom."
Was this (a) atrocious judgment or (b) an illegal failure to report child sexual abuse? That depends on whose "facts" you believe. Even Mr. Jennings says he would now handle the matter differently. But add this incident to the introduction he wrote to a book called "Queering Elementary Education" to his advocacy for teaching about homosexuality as early as kindergarten, and to his documented attacks on conservative organizations such as the Southern Baptist Church and the Boy Scouts, and it's valid to wonder just for whom he intends schools to be safe.
So far, 53 Republican congressmen have called for his ouster, maintaining that the presumed Jennings agenda "runs counter to the values that many parents desire to instill in their children."
The White House and some media seem shocked at the criticism of Mr. Jennings, but such a brouhaha is the danger of slipping outside the normal advise-and-consent role of the Senate for presidential appointments. Had Mr. Jennings appeared before a Senate panel, his background would have emerged and senators would have had to take a stand on his suitability as a schools lord. Bypassing the Senate leaves the role of background exposure to pundits and lobby groups, exacerbating the nation's divisions.
Of course, other presidents have appointed czars, but none has gone hog wild like Mr. Obama. "If [appointees] are going to have sweeping policy responsibilities they ought to be accountable to Congress," writes Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. That's what the Founders thought. With few exceptions, that should be the default status for presidential appointments, especially one who carries the exotic baggage of a Kevin Jennings.