On Party Politics and Education Reform Right Now
If you're interested in a detailed policy analysis of what Obama's second term could mean for early childhood and K-12 education, take a look at what my colleagues and I at the New America Foundation are projecting. I just want to say a word here about the larger, political realignment of the parties and various interest groups on school reform. A lot of standards-and-accountability reformers are rending their garments over the loss on Tuesday of Tony Bennett, the Indiana state schools superintendent who worked with Republican governor Mitch Daniels to implement the Common Core curriculum standards, tie teacher evaluation to student test scores, allow the state to takeover struggling schools, and provide vouchers for private school tuition. He was defeated at the ballot box by Glenda Ritz, a veteran teacher, union leader, and school librarian who ran with support from both organized labor and conservatives angered by the Daniels' administration's embrace of the nationally-shared Commore Core standards.
With the exception of vouchers, the Daniels/Bennett reform agenda was indistinguishable from that of many Democrats who have forged productive, if at times strained, relationships with teachers' unions, including President Obama, Newark mayor Cory Booker, New York governor Andrew Cuomo, and so on and so forth. So what we're seeing is that data-driven, standardized testing-centered school reform is most politically palatable
With the exception of vouchers, the Daniels/Bennett reform agenda was indistinguishable from that of many Democrats who have forged productive, if at times strained, relationships with teachers' unions, including President Obama, Newark mayor Cory Booker, New York governor Andrew Cuomo, and so on and so forth. So what we're seeing is that data-driven, standardized testing-centered school reform is most politically palatable