Kumble R. Subbaswamy likes to quote Thomas Jefferson: "Let us in education dream of an aristocracy of achievement arising out of a democracy of opportunity." Mr. Subbaswamy used the quote in his address to the campus of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in March, during his visit as one of four finalists to be chancellor. He got the nod, and is set to take office on July 1. It is clear during an interview that his enthusiasm for Jefferson's remark was not just candidate shtick. "That's really what public education is about," he says of Jefferson's dream of b...