Edu Commentary

Governor Granholm going after schools chief Watkins…

Though there are other issues in play, there is no way it could have anything to do with this, is there?

Still unconvinced that the Armstrong Williams payoff was a phenomenal screw-up? Then read this USA Today article, the President thinks so! Incidentally, this probably renders Rod Paige’s recent statement, as they say, inoperative…

In Washington, the practice of “earmarks” for pet projects in the education appropriations legislation is way out of hand. Wash. Times Archibald writes-up the excess in elementary and secondary education (1,175 earmarks totaling about $400 million). He also revisits the ELC issue.

At the higher education level, the Department of Education had to cancel the annual grant competition for the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education because there was almost no money left after 400 earmarks totaling $146.2 million reports ($) the Chronicle of Higher Ed.

It’s laughable, but it’s also really unfortunate. Edu Commentary thinks that as a rule, large formula driven federal programs are the way to go because they’re the best way to drive dollars to the neediest kids. But, the only way the federal government can serve as a catalyst for innovation is if it can run some honest grant competitions to help spark new ideas and innovations.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution has started an education blog. Get Schooled looks at education in Georgia and nationally. Worth checking out.

Also, Edu Commentary’s been stopping by A Constrained Vision, who says she’s a — “Fourth Generation Jewish Republican; Third Generation Economist; Second Generation Blogger, and First Generation Blue Devil.” What she is is prolific and she blogs on a host of issues but has a lot on education. Worth dropping in on, too.

Also, long overdue, the list of edublogs on left is updated.

and insert foot. Good thing they don’t like giving Summers a hard time up there in Cambridge, otherwise this could be a problem…

Update: NYT’s Dillon here. And, Today’s Katie Couric had an interview about this Tuesday AM in the first half hour…

Always good reading (pdf).

Timely note from an Edu Commentary correspondent in NYC:

I saw [NYC Schools Chancellor] Joel Klein speak this morning at a black church in Harlem. He noted that only 1 in 10 black NYC high school students graduate with a Regents diploma. This is a situation that I can’t possibly fathom. In theory, you’d think that kind of statistic would – in and of itself – be a call to arms to do something drastic. Klein understands the gravity of the situation. I think he also is amazed that people haven’t treated this as a societal emergency.

Bradford Plumer does a nice job laying it out. Key line:

What we really need is a calm, good-faith discussion about what sorts of tweaks the law needs, where schools are struggling, what resources states do and don’t need, etc. At the moment, though, we have hysterical Democrats on the left, and dishonest Republicans on the right who capriciously slash funding, monkey with the regulations, and pull stunts like Armstrong Williams. Truly a pox on both houses. But notice: As soon as a Democrat who believes in NCLB comes to power, this can all end, and we’ve got a wonderfully workable, progressive law in the making.

President Bush is proposing to raise the maximum Pell Grant award by $500 and make the program a mandatory spending item in the federal budget. If the Administration follows through on this and finances it responsibly (for instance by addressing some waste in the student loan program) it’s a sensible albeit expensive proposal. It also further gets the administration off the hook on this issue (but why they did not announce all this as a package is a mystery…where does the PR money go?). Assuming they deliver, this would also put Democrats in something of a box on higher ed financing.

Big losers here? Possibly the student loan industry if the Bush team actually decides to pay for this thing. And, keep an eye on how this plays with efforts to make spending for the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act mandatory. Probably doesn’t help proponents of that cause. Policywise because (a) of the expense (b) the two programs work somewhat differently (both have eligibility criteria but Pell’s are much more clear). Politically even more so because if they have to eat this Pell proposal Congressional Republicans will be in no mood to make even more programs mandatory.

In Saturday’s Wash. Post CA State Board of Ed member and founder of Accelerated Academy, Jonathan Williams, responds to this op-ed from charter foe Amy Stuart Wells.

Williams writes:

Charter schools are doing a lot better than critics acknowledge. Granted, charter school performance varies. But research by the Rand Corp., the Hoover Institute and the Brookings Institution shows that over time the performance of the charter sector is improving. In California, where charter schools were the subject of a damning 1998 report by Wells, Rand found last year that the performance of charters is now comparable to that of other public schools, achieved with considerably fewer resources.



Note the last graf as well. It’s another good example of a larger problem that falls squarely in the category of “I’ll take really stupid ways to make your political party unpopular in some communities for $1000 Alex”…

Also, on charter policy, new GAO report. Highlights here (pdf), full report here (pdf). Punchline: Collect more data (and U.S. Department of Ed is working on that issue).

On a similar note to the item below, outstanding must-read NYT piece about Brad Jupp, his efforts in Denver, and the bigger picture here. Loads of important stuff buried in this one.

Key quote:

Do tenure, seniority and the traditional pay schedule always work in everyone’s best interest? ”Of course not,” he [NEA President Reg Weaver] says after a long pause. ”But I can’t say that. Our enemies will take that and use it against us.”

Does the NEA use the same PR consultants as the Department of Education? Just wondering…