Randi Weingarten, The Manchurian Candidate
Education Notes Online
Eduflack: The Weingarten Doctrine
For those who remember the early days, Eduflack was founded nearly three years ago to comment on how successfully (or unsuccessfully) we were communicating education and education reform ideas. At the time, NCLB was a hot topic in many circles, Ed in 08 was committed to raise the profile of education issues in national campaigns, and changes in organizational leadership and new constructs of advocacy groups threatened to move education back onto the front pages.But as a recent Brookings study has demonstrated, education stories simply aren't capturing the hearts and minds of the media, let alone the residents of Main Street USA. So Eduflack evolved with the times. Rather than critique the scraps of media, I spend most of my time talking about the issues that merit discussion. But we long for the good old days and our original mission.
This is particularly true of speeches. As a former speechwriter (for members of Congress, members of presidential Administrations, and executives at Fortune 500 companies and leading non-profits), I greatly appreciate the written word. I particularly appreciate capturing a speaker's voice, gaining an audience's attention, and delivering a real ask that results in a change of thinking or a change in behavior. Unfortunately, such speeches are few and far between in education. Yes, we occasionally get the Gingrich/Sharpton engagements brought by our friends over at the Education Equality Project, but those are the exceptions, not the rule. EdSec Arne Duncan delivers a good speech, but pretty much sticks to the stump speech these days (with the true exception being the speech at the NEA last June). President Obama can deliver a powerful ed reform speech, as he did at the National Academies of Science last spring on the topic of STEM, but those are rarities. And if we spend time at many of the forums and discussions in DC and around the country, those "discussions" could be scripted and blocked out weeks ahead of time, with transcripts (including questions and answers) released before they are delivered. For the most part, education rhetoric has grown stale, with us saying the same things to the same audiences with limited impact. After all, what truly unique discussion can we have on topics like ARRA spending guidelines or RttT guidance.