Edu Commentary

Susan Estrich opines on the Democratic-led takedown of Democratic State Board of Education member Reed Hastings in California. In addition to Hastings’ record of support for public education, Estrich notes that, ironically, it’s the first defeat of a Governator nominee…

Key quote:

“I’m ashamed today to be a Democrat, to have to come up here to convince Democrats that this is a good thing,” my friend Steve Barr, the president of Green Dot Public Schools, one of the most successful charter school groups in California, said. Steve was one of the founders of Rock-the-Vote and has worked at the highest levels of Democratic politics for 20 years. He went to Sacramento to testify for Reed.



Edu Commentary also knows Steve. He’s a Democrat’s Democrat and a veteran organizer. He runs several outstanding charter schools which in time should help lead to a change in thinking about what’s possible in urban education. When people like this start to become radicalized it ought to be a wake-up call…What was it the Governator said about special interests anyway…

Links via Kaus who weighs-in, too, noting Hastings’ support for charter schools and refusal to water down standards for No Child Left Behind and asking:

Are those secret reasons he was defeated–with the Democrats carrying the teachers’ unions water, but letting Latinos take the lead? The unions might not want to be seen publicly opposing someone like Hastings who had been effective at getting more money for schools. …

Good question, but regardless of the answer, Democratic strategist Garry South’s point that:

“We’re in serious trouble if Democrats are going to go on a purge and get rid of every single Democrat who has moderate, mainstream views,” he added, “and doesn’t adhere to total orthodoxy as members of the Legislature define it.”

is valid and not only applicable in California…

Longish New Yorker article about new ideas for training and disseminating information/knowledge/experience in the Army. Now being applied during combat operations in Iraq, there are obvious parallels between both the ideas and the infrastructure being used to support them that are applicable in public education.

Thanks to reader MP for flagging this.

You all can stop sending emails about this story. Rest assured we’ll keep abreast of it.

Three recent articles here, here, and here on how choice is becoming more embedded in public education. Is this really so bad?

From MA: ”Choice is here to stay, and not just in education,” said Framingham Superintendent Christopher H. Martes, who calls the shift ”probably long overdue.”

You hear some grumbling from conservative types that the TV show “The West Wing” is just a front for liberal issues. Edu Commentary doesn’t watch it (preferring shows like this) and has no idea if that’s at all valid. But, for what it’s worth, they’re giving the Center for Education Reform, which hardly qualifies as a liberal organization, some play.

Is over. Reed Hastings was not reconfirmed for the CA Board of Education. This episode vividly shows the struggles Dems have ahead on education.

Interesting Jacobs post on social mobility, or lack thereof. Related NYT story here.

Here’s some good news for the Department of Ed, Alexander Russo says they’re right about Chicago’s supplemental services dispute.

NYT’s Herszenhorn hits the NYC small schools program. Must-read if you follow this, already burning up the email lists…And from Boston, who says competition has no place in public education?

One reader writes to set Edu Commentary straight:

You and the New York Times have been generally supportive of the No Child Left Behind Act since its conception, and apparently you still don’t get it. This is a plan developed by southern white conservatives who have been working to destroy our public school system and fighting for vouchers and tax money for religious schools ever since Brown vs. Board of Education in the 50’s. Unable to accomplish their goal of public funding for their White Christian Academies in an honest campaign for vouchers, they have used the same incremental approach this administration has taken toward the debates about freedom of choice and flat taxes. Through the use of “disaggregation” in their use of testing scores to create failing schools, the right wing is working to accomplish their ends, one school at a time. This should be called the “Re-Segregation Act.” It’s no coincidence that the “newscaster” they bribed is African American, a group you might imagine would be most concerned about re-segregating the schools.



Yikes! I should have seen this all along…

How’d they get Ted Kennedy and Bill Taylor to go along? That’s clever and diabolical…

Brink revisits this issue. Two quick thoughts. First, we’re still debating a fictitious bill. NCLB won’t, for instance, require children to be held back that’s another urban myth. Second, on polls, the Joint Center poll has only one NCLB question, you can find it buried in here (pdf), and Edu Commentary’s leery of any question that says “federal government’s” as part of the question. Here’s another poll (it’s from some front group or another but you can see the poll itself) of 1000 registered voters but African-Americans are underrepresented. Few months old, mixed results, margin of error +/-3. Anyway, enough on this. The polls say about anything right now depending on how the questions are asked.

The U.S. Department of Education We Just Don’t Get It released this statement Thursday afternoon. Way to quell the flames….

Speaking of flames…FCC here, United States Senate here…

And, word is that despite his original commitment to support an investigation, House Ed and Workforce Committee Chairman Boehner hasn’t signed off formally. Interesting…

Today’s bottom line: Whatever these guys spent on PR, it wasn’t enough.