John Thompson: Time is Right for "Principles that Unite Us"
Guest post by John Thompson.
The seeds of the defeat of the accountability-driven reform movement, ironically, were sown in 2009 when union leaders decided that they had to keep their own counsel, or to at least keep a low profile when warning against test-driven reform. Union leadership felt they had no choice but to acquiesce when the incoming Democratic President Barack Obama tilted toward corporate reform. Many rank-in-file teachers and scholars like Diane Ravitch documented the fallacies of the reformers' agenda and started the process of articulating a clear alternative.
Five years later, teachers, unions, students, and families are finding a common voice. It is the perfect time for the American Federation of Teachers to issue "The Principles that Unite Us," a call for labor and communities to unite in a new era of school reform.
During the election of 2008, I thought Hillary Clinton might be a better ally in improving schools, but I still supported Barack Obama. I assumed the President would "split the difference," side with teachers about half the time and with so-called reformers the other half of the time.
President Obama began with a $100 billion Stimulus which saved jobs in education and helped stop the Great Recession from deteriorating into a depression. At the same time, he gave the "Billionaires Boys Club" a free rein in writing the rules for the $4.2 billion Race to the Top (RttT). Back then, letting corporate reformers set the RttT rules could be seen as a trade-off. But, it soon became clear that market-driven reformers were in complete control of policy. The Obama administration might say nice things about teachers, throw a few pennies at early childhood education, and complain about NCLB testing. But, it put the worst of NCLB's bubble-in accountability on steroids.
The Obama administration might have successfully institutionalized test-driven reform, imposing corporate governance on the public schools system, were it not for hubris. The administration may have enabled the reformers' prideful overreach, giving them enough rope to hang themselves. Reformers thought their prayers were answered. A liberal Democratic president committed