In Education Reform We See The Real Change That Was Promised

by Mike Smith · 2009-10-24 08:37:00 UTC
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We’re not close to reaching the educational Promised Land, but we may be at the start of what Rahm Emanuel calls The Quiet Revolution.

These the words of NYT op columnist David Brooks. No, he's not joining birther-teabaggers, but agreeing that one place where President Obama's administration is showing the real change that it promised is in education. Brooks explains that despite fears that education reform would be watered down and wouldn't be able to stand up the power of the teachers-unions, real progress is being made. Across the political spectrum reformers, Bill Clinton, and Jeb Bush have all been impressed by how the Obama administration has held the line to incite reform.

Caps are being raised on charter schools nationwide, and now "reformers know more about how to build charters and the research is showing solid results." Duncan is making progress with the unions too, with Brooks explaining "The American Federation of Teachers recently announced innovation grants for performance pay ideas."

But Mike Rose writing at TruthDig isn't so convinced, fearing "within many of these reforms are the seeds of their undoing." He fears magic-bullet solutions like charter schools and linking student-scores to test scores, and whilst glad to see school-reform a national priority, he fears that tarring dissenting voices with the "anti-reform" or "special interests" brush isn't helping. Change is happening, but Rose wants everyone to continually assess whether this is the right kind of change at the right speed.

Photo credit: D Sharon Pruitt

Mike Smith is associate editor at Change.org.
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