Dispatch from Detroit
On Friday morning, I had the pleasure of speaking about education reform on Points North, the regional NPR call-in radio show. The other guest was Howard Walker, the local state senator--and the topic was privatizing public education.
The senator, who spoke first, said that his constituents, here in beautiful northern Michigan, supported and were satisfied with their public schools and teachers, and wouldn't be likely to change what they were doing if new legislation to permit wide-scale hiring of non-unionized, free-lance teachers is passed. The problem the law was designed to address was those terrible urban districts downstate--that's where we need drastic solutions, where schools were failing.
This is a familiar dodge to those who live in the suburbs and semi-rural areas in many states: Not my problem.
Senator Walker tossed out a few well-worn chestnuts about being "college ready" (ACT averages have gone