Thursday, November 18, 2010

Schools Matter: My Night at the Kennedy School for A Single Political View on Education Reform

Schools Matter: My Night at the Kennedy School for A Single Political View on Education Reform

My Night at the Kennedy School for A Single Political View on Education Reform

Tonight while leafleting for public schools in front of the Kennedy School of Government and Politics, someone handed me a ticket to the sold out event of the evening, featuring, in order of physical dimensions, Margaret Spellings, Jeb Bush, Michelle Rhee, and John Podesta. With both sides of the corporate jet represented on this "education reform" panel, it was to be an exciting evening, even though I did not get to ask my question. Plenty of smart Harvard kids did, though, and the answers ranged from soapy to pugilistic to just plain dumb. Good acoustics but lots of echo, if you follow.

It is obvious that Jeb misses his knife fights with the teachers' union in Florida, and it was clear that he sees himself as a friend of teachers, as long as they are not union members. He got literally red-faced, really splotchy, when he talked about the need to "blow