Education in America

I’m unenthusiastic about the idea of Colin Powell for secretary of education, as reported by Politico yesterday. It’s certainly true that Powell has been outspoken on education issues. When he endorsed Obama on Meet the Press last month, he said: America has a terrible education problem in the sense that we have too many young […]

Clay Risen‘s new Atlantic profile of D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee is well worth a read. Rhee, of course, is the superintendent who offered teachers over $100,000 in pay to submit to a merit-based assessment system and voluntarily give-up tenure. The teachers’ union rejected that effort. But what Risen really gets at, I think, is […]

Last night, Teacher’s College at Columbia University hosted an education debate between the Obama and McCain campaigns. Lisa Graham Keegan, the former Arizona schools chief and leading voucher proponent, represented McCain. Linda Darling Hammond, the Stanford-based critic of NLCB and Teach For America, represented Obama. You can watch the whole debate here. Hammond has been […]

He’s for public school choice, not for vouchers that give families a tiny bit of money to attend an inner-city parochial school. Key distinction. —Dana Goldstein

We’re awaiting word today on what district has won this year’s Broad Prize for Urban Education, the holy grail of edu-reform. Last year’s winner was New York City. This year’s finalists are Miami-Dade County, Florida; Broward County, Florida; Brownsville, Texas; Aldine, Texas; and Long Beach, California. At the great new Gotham Schools blog, Philissa Cramer […]

A key reason for the failure of the bailout plan to gain enough votes was constituent pressure against it, both from progressives and conservatives. That’s because credible sources have done a poor job of convincing the public of the connection between the financial crisis on Wall Street and its far-reaching consequences for all Americans. I […]

Education Week, the paper of record for the edu-wonk community, reports today on fears that education funding will be slashed because of the likely Wall Street bailout. Education lobbyists and advocates are planning on arguing that better education for children will boost the economy in the long-run. (Experts actually disagree about whether schooling can or […]

The Clinton Global Initiative is an opportunity for the world’s wealthy to make philanthropic commitments, and in that spirit, Obama used his appearance by satellite today to make his own four “commitments” on the Clinton Foundation’s priorities of climate, poverty, education, and global health: 1. An 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, […]