Dangerous Bipartisan Conventional Wisdom Threatens Public Education
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Public education policy is one area where consensus crosses political party lines—the consensus, that is, about imposing punitive “reforms” like school closures, expanding charterization, and scapegoating public school teachers if they cannot seem to raise their students test scores. In these days when much of our politics is highly partisan, it may be difficult to grasp and accept that current theories attacking traditional public schools and supporting privatized alternatives are fully bipartisan. But harsh turnourounds, school closures and privatization are supported these days by prominent Democrats as well as the Republicans who are better known for such policies.
Bruce Reed, profiled recently in Inside Philanthropy, provides case in point. Reed is a long and experienced Democratic operative who, in November 2013, left a job as chief of staff for Vice President Joe Biden to move into a highly influential school “deform” position by becoming president of the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation. According to Education Week‘s Marketplace K-12 blog, Reed was chief domestic policy advisor for President Bill Clinton from 1996 to 2001. Inside Philanthropy reports that Reed also served as CEO of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council founded by Bill Clinton. Reed was once a speech writer for Vice President Al Gore.
According to Inside Philanthropy‘s profile, “Ideologically, Reed looks like a perfect fit for Broad, whose political affiliations lean Democratic but who is an ardent foe of teachers unions, a
