False Compromises In The Education Debate
Legend has, political disputes are supposed to be resolvable only when parties “meet in the middle” and shake hands on points of agreement that are possible.
But in the much-contested issue of “education reform,” only one of the disputing parties in the debate tends to be implored to seek compromise.
The latest example of this came from conservative commentator Juan Williams. Writing for The Hill, Williams claimed differing opinions of how to improve the nation’s schools are “stuck in partisan paralysis.” He beseeched “two of the nation’s most politically powerful black men,” President Obama and Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) to make a “deal” on “hotly debated education reforms” and embrace the cause of charter schools.
Such a “grand bargain,” Williams assured, would “deliver on the promise of equal opportunity and solve this generation’s top civil rights problem.”
Similarly, in the same week, liberal columnist Jonathan Chait wrote for New York magazine that