Education in America

Our event expanding on Kevin Carey’s two recent articles on education is tomorrow. Details here. –The Editors

In an article from our last print issue, Kevin Carey explains how Democrats have gotten education reform wrong: Democrats have been stumbling on education policy for years, fracturing the progressive coalition, tainting the party brand, creating undeserved political opportunities for Republicans, and, worst of all, standing in the way of school reforms that primarily benefit […]

That was John McCain‘s contention when he refused to support the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, and Ezra has a good post today on why the Obama campaign is smart to highlight this issue in a TV commercial. But one thing the ad doesn’t do is fully refute the McCain position, which is factually inaccurate. […]

From The New York Times on Palin‘s policy education: Aides traveling with Ms. Palin have reported back to associates that she is a fast study — asking few questions of her policy briefers but quickly repeating back their main points — who already has considerable ease and experience before cameras. Palin was trained as a […]

Over at the New York Times‘ new Education Watch blog, commenters are taking Sandra Tsing Loh to task for suggesting that the Obamas, Bidens, and McCains, like most affluent and educated families, would have given their local public schools a huge lift by actually enrolling their children in them. Don’t judge their choices, the commenters […]

In Denver two weeks ago, I reported on the ever-more-confrontational debate between teachers unions and progressive education reformer types who, backed by influential philanthropists such as Bill Gates and Eli Broad, are moving the Democratic Party toward an enthusiastic acceptance of public charter schools, private school vouchers, test-based accountability, and merit pay for teachers. Barack […]