Liberal fears that the new Republican Administration plans to let the states operate their schools unassisted and virtually as they please were emphatically laid to rest last week. For the job of U.S. Commissioner of Education, President Richard Nixon picked James E. Allen Jr., the tough-minded education commissioner of New YorkÂa man who does not hesitate to wield his authority in order to bring about reforms in the schools.
In New York, the greying, 57-year-old Allen skillfully ran the state's labyrinthine school system as an independent duchy that critics and supporters alike...