Unions and Democrats Both Straddle the Fence
There’s a highly illustrative bit of information in Politico, courtesy of U.S. Rep. David Obey, about the battle over the edujobs bill. Obey says he knew the Obama administration would be upset about the cuts to the Race to the Top program, but that he proposed cuts to some of his own pet projects, “such as expanding broadband computer access to rural areas like his district.”
So to Obey, the plan to incentivize specific education reforms is no different from spending money on rural community access to broadband. It’s safe to say Obey and Obama don’t see eye-to-eye on education policy. It would seem with NEA and AFT in favor of the edujobs bill and against Race to the Top, the lines are clearly drawn between union-allied Democrats and reformy Democrats. But it’s not that simple. With a midterm election looming, neither the unions nor the Democrats want an internal split, so we’re seeing a lot of overlapping
So to Obey, the plan to incentivize specific education reforms is no different from spending money on rural community access to broadband. It’s safe to say Obey and Obama don’t see eye-to-eye on education policy. It would seem with NEA and AFT in favor of the edujobs bill and against Race to the Top, the lines are clearly drawn between union-allied Democrats and reformy Democrats. But it’s not that simple. With a midterm election looming, neither the unions nor the Democrats want an internal split, so we’re seeing a lot of overlapping
