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We Are Winning the Battle of Ideas

Dear Friends,

Do you want the good news or the bad news, first?

Well I’m a glass-half-full kind of gal so I’ll start with the positives:

We are winning the battle of ideas! Each day of 2012 so far we have seen, heard and read our words and phrases repeated over and over again. In the media, by policymakers and even the President of the United States, whose State of the Union echoed the words we first made popular 18 years ago — competitive education reform.

While real victory requires more than just words, it starts with an acceptance of ideas and an acknowledgement that we are in the right. I love that President Clinton adopted our commitment to charter schools, that President Bush adopted our commitment to competition and quality, and now, President Obama has endorsed all of it. The next president will, likewise, have to up the ante. And that’s where I’ll pause to tell you the bad news.

Rhetoric is winning the day.

Our movement is beginning to get so giddy about our widespread agreement on the means, that we seem to be forgetting that a lot of work, strife, disagreement, and yes controversy inevitably follow the real path toward the end.

While some presidential candidates would like us to believe otherwise, we cannot expect school boards to make choice happen for all kids in need. And reaching and creating high standards requires more than a challenge and some federal funding, as the Obama administration would have us believe. Creating real reform across the states requires more than lip service and the government restructuring that even some of our best sounding governors seem content to accept.

Since 1993, CER has been challenging the status quo, no matter who is in charge or getting comfortable. We’ve seen first hand how even the most firebrand policymakers, reformers, funders and watchdog groups get so comfortable with their perceived success that they stop fighting, and blur the difference between popular words and real action.

And so today I write with cautious optimism and fear. I’m optimistic that with your help we will overcome once again the complacency that’s settling into our veins these days, impacted by the wide array of new leaders, new groups, new funds and new policies being touted daily. We will keep us all on our toes and continue calling out inaction and lethargy to accept “good enough.”

I fear, however, that we are sliding back to a time when we think our elected officials — because they sound so darn good — will take care of the problems when in actuality they will simply pass new laws into existence that put more bureaucracy in charge.

Choice and accountability are best left to the creation of highly accountable but fully autonomous organizations.

We must be wary of attempts to put education agencies in charge of our choices, and as dictators of what makes for good standards, and testing.

There is much said in the public realm today that sounds like the real thing.

We work to reveal the imitations every day so you don’t have to. With that in mind, I urge your continued vigilance and invite your continued involvement and support.

Best Regards,

Jeanne Allen
President