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Obama's Big Test on Education

Beware of anybody using the
term education reform. Calling American
Prospect is like calling Bill Clinton Liberal.
They are "third way" Democrats, which means
they might as well be Republicans on a lot of
issues.

Jake Tapper, White House Correspondent

My former Washington City Paper colleague
Amanda Ripley has a cover story in this week's
TIME about the DC chancellor of schools
Michelle Rhee, who "has promised to make
Washington the highest-performing urban school
district in the nation, a prospect that, if
realized, could transform the way schools
across the country are run. She is attempting
to do this through a relentless focus on
finding--and rewarding--strong teachers,
purging incompetent ones and weakening the
tenure system that keeps bad teachers in the
classroom."

Rhee, Ripley writes, "wants to make Washington
teachers the highest paid in the country, and
in exchange she wants to get rid of the weakest
teachers. Where she and the teachers' union
disagree most is on her ability to measure the
quality of teachers."

Interestingly, though Rhee is a Democrat, she
almost voted for Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

"It was a very hard decision," Rhee says. "I'm
somewhat terrified of what the Democrats are
going to do on education."

What does President-elect Obama think? Tough to
say. He has supported merit pay for teachers,
which teachers' unions oppose, and heralded
Rhee. He has been a strong advocate of charter
schools and in 2002 said he was "not closed
minded" on the subject of vouchers, though
since then he has come out against vouchers.
Over the Summer, I asked him why.

"The problem is, is that, you know, although it
might benefit some kids at the top, what you're
going to do is leave a lot of kids at the
bottom," he said. "We don't have enough slots
for every child to go into a parochial school
or a private school. And what you would see is
a huge drain of resources out of the public
schools. So what I've said is let's foster
competition within the public school system.
Let's make sure that charter schools are up and
running. Let's make sure that kids who are in
failing schools, in local school districts,
have an option to go to schools that are doing
well.

"But what I don't want to do is to see a
diminished commitment to the public schools to
the point where all we have are the hardest-to-
teach kids with the least involved parents with
the most disabilities in the public schools,"
Obama continued. "That's going to make things
worse, and we're going to lose the commitment
to public schools that I think have been so
important to building this country."

In March, Josh Patashnik of The New Republic
took a closer look at PEBO and education,
writing that Obama "has long advocated a
reformist agenda that looks favorably upon
things like competition between schools, test-
based accountability, and performance pay for
teachers. But the Obama campaign has hesitated
to trumpet its candidate's maverick
credentials. As an increasingly influential
chorus of donors and policy wonks pushes an
agenda within the Democratic Party that
frightens teachers' unions and their
traditional liberal allies, Obama seems unsure
how far he can go in reassuring the former
group that he's one of them without alienating
the latter. And this is a shame, because Obama
may represent the best hope for real reform in
decades."

Likely not encouraging Rhee is Obama's pick to
head up his transition efforts on education:
Stanford education professor Linda Darling-
Hammond, whom many in the education reform
community eye warily, as too closely allied
with teachers unions.

Members of the pro-reform group Democrats for
Education Reform see Darling-Hamilton as
someone who thinks more funding is the answer
and say "Darling-Hammond's approach is
dangerous. Without genuine reform, money pumped
into a district like Newark is wasted."The
liberal American Prospect suggests that Obama's
naming Darling-Hammond, "a teacher quality
expert who opposes merit pay and is more
critical than supportive of NCLB, signals that
Obama wishes to avoid a fight with the unions.
He'll spend his political capital on energy and
health care instead."

On a personal note, after they move to
Washington DC, the Obamas are planning to send
their daughters to the elite private school
Sidwell Friends.

Mr. Obama seems to have some reformist
impulses, but it will be interesting to see how
they play out.


— Jake Tapper
ABC News
2008-11-30
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/11/obamas-big-test.html

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