December 30, 2008
You’ve been called a “great guy” by democrats who think you will help them grow school reform. You’ve “made a lot of progress,” say university types. You’re the “compromise candidate,” because the unions have endorsed you. Now comes the hard part. Frankly, you’re one of the few national education leaders I do not know, which […]
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December 12, 2008
Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter was ahead of the reform curve in media coverage back when it was not a popular thing to do. He’s been an avid fan of great models that provide at least some power to parents, and lots of freedom from bureaucracy. He understands the problems with unions. He even uses the language […]
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December 4, 2008
Congratulations go out to Detroit Public Schools who seem to have finagled a bailout from a friendly state legislature. Surely the Michigan House of Representatives has much to admire about their largest school district – dismal achievement scores, distressing drop out rates and mismanaged budgets on a scale even a Wall Street bank executive could […]
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December 1, 2008
D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee seems to be dominating the media these days, and she’s making headlines again this week, gracing the cover of TIME Magazine. While there’s nothing glamorous about firing nearly 300 teachers and principals, Rhee has made more changes within DCPS in one year than most could even dream about over several […]
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November 21, 2008
(Sing to tune of 12 days of Christmas):
During the second week of transition, Obama gave to thee:
Four Berkeley lawyers,
Three Clinton holdovers,
Two union operatives,
and a severely status quo team for DOE.
All that talk about reform. We kept saying people are policy. A look at the latest education transition team members is telling on that score.
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November 18, 2008
This country is great. We’ve just elected the first African-American president, who has brought tremendous pride to many communities, but especially to African-Americans. I’ve seen it myself across the color and political spectrums. It reminds us that you can have anything you want in America – unless you’re poor, that is. Nowhere is this more […]
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September 5, 2008
If public charter schools are really so bad, then why are tens of thousands of Texas students standing in line for admission?
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August 29, 2008
NEA President Reg Weaver commits "the 3.2 million members of the National Education Association [to be] organized, energized and mobilized to help elect Barack Obama."
On behalf of the NEA's one million Republican members, Larry Sand strenuously objects.
Read more »August 20, 2008
American students are flunking out internationally. Meanwhile, as education scholar and former Microsoft engineer Andrew Coulsen has observed, one of the last great innovations in American education happened around 1801 during the presidency of Thomas Jefferson: the invention of the chalkboard. Therein lies the problem.
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June 30, 2008
The case has been frequently (and justly) made that the unions are anti-student because of their adamant positions on school choice, charter schools and teacher tenure. However, I contend that the unions are not only anti-student, they are all too often anti-teacher.
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