With the looming reauthorization of President Bush’s controversial No Child Left Behind legislation, longtime education watchers expect Obama to choose a secretary of education who has both expertise in education reform and proven political skills to negotiate between competing interests. That seems to give the inside track to Democrat Jim Hunt, the former four-term North Carolina governor who made aggressive education reform his signature cause while in office. Hunt is particularly known for his work to boost teacher quality, and improve and expand preschool education, both areas in which Obama has expressed particular interest.

The likeliest Republican: Tom Kean, former governor of New Jersey, former president of Drew University, and chairman of the 9/11 Commission. Other oft-mentioned names: Democrat Tim Kaine, the current governor of Virginia, who made Obama’s short list for vice president, and Democrat Roy Romer, former governor of Colorado and former superintendent of the Los Angeles public school system. Outside the box possibilities might include Freeman Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, who has been notably successful in attracting and graduating minority students in highly demanding college programs, and Kati Haycock, the head of Education Trust, a nonpartisan powerhouse pushing for bold education reforms.