Debunking Reformy “Messaging”: A Philadelphia Story
Posted on August 15, 2013
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Let’s take another trip back to Philadelphia for the day, because the reformy conversation around Philadelphia is just so darn illustrative of how reformy thinking works. Here’s a synopsis of the reformy approach to pushing pre-established, fact free, ideological reforms:
- Step 1: Create a story line
- Step 2: Find a poster child (school district, city, etc.)
- Step 3: Conjure some reformy buzz phrases (“failed urban district” & “sector agnosticism”)
- Step 4: Repeat, over and over and over again… with complete disregard for facts or evidence to the contrary
Nowhere is this thinking more evident than in recent Twitter activity of Andy Smarick. Let’s take a look at a few recent tweets. First, the broad crisis oriented storyline- the monolithic “urban school district” is a massive freakin’ failure. They all stink. It’s their own fault (let’s ignore urban planning and development, white flight, state school finance systems & tax policy, and the like). Crappy management – high paid bureaucrats in charge, overpaid, lazy teachers waiting out their time to collect huge pensions and bankrupt the city… that’s how it all works.
And of course, don’t forget that year, after year after year… all we’ve ever done is throw more and more money at these bureaucrats and teachers… and all they’ve done is pocket it and waste it…