Well, the first thing Bush should ask Goss to do is eliminate the requirement that one must have a bachelor's degree to get in. Second, it's best to hire people on the fringe again. Intelligence used to be a dirty job done by street-saavy people who didn't have nothing to lose. Now it's done by by-the-book schmucks who are more interested in a career than getting their hands dirty.
Regardless of whether the ops have street smarts, intelligence is almost exclusively in the realm of technology these days. However, I know we still have covert operatives, and I personally think it's a good thing for them to have some college education. It shows that they have the motivation to actually finish a college education (no small matter,) and it means that they can absorb a lot of information. If they're from the fringe, it shows that they're capable of rising above their circumstances.
I'm POSITIVE that any operatives who get sent into covert ops are very well trained, and have been assessed as having the street smarts you're talking about. These things can be taught too, ya know. How many operatives of ours have been detected and captured lately? None that I'm aware of, yet I'm certain we have them in Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, European countries, and China.
I traveled to DC, before the 9/11 attacks, and they were running tours of the FBI building (the requirements are similar.) A lady operative gave the tour, and at the end, she showed the group some weapons, including the Glock 9mm and MP5 submachinegun. And she had extreme skill with these weapons. She emptied the Glock magazine in all of about three seconds, with a 3-inch grouping at about 40 feet (I'm guessing.) It's pretty ridiculous to assume that they're all by-the-book career minded shmucks, even if a few are.