Here's a nice article about Bennet, when he was being considered as Sec. of Education, that quotes DFER's Joe Williams:

Bennet is a political junkie who reveled in this election year's ups and downs.

It's unclear when he first became enamored with Obama, but by late spring Bennet was among the advisers talking education to the candidate or his team in regular Sunday conference calls.

"The president-elect is in a wonderful position to give everybody who cares about education reform . . . permission to think about our work differently," Bennet told the Rocky last month.

"I think that's tremendous because I don't happen to believe, even though I'm a Democrat, that there's a partisan answer to fixing this nation's schools," he added. "Making significant progress is going to mean that everybody needs to put down their arms and work together."

It's that desire to forge compromise, which Bennet has repeatedly executed for the city and for DPS, that makes him an attractive candidate, said Joe Williams, director of the New York-based Democrats for Education Reform.

-----------------

Nontraditional achiever

Bennet in running for Cabinet after just 3 years at DPS

By Nancy Mitchell, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published December 12, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/dec/12/nontraditional-achiever/

Photo by Chris Schneider / The Rocky/2007

Denver Public Schools Superintendent Michael Bennet is a contender to lead the U.S. Department of Education

Michael Bennet's name often is followed by the phrase "the smartest guy in the room," but it is doubtful even he could have predicted his current status as a contender for the job of U.S. secretary of education.

Three years ago, Bennet, 44, sought the job running Denver Public Schools as a "nontraditional" candidate, which means he admitted he had never spent a day in a school as a teacher or a principal.