In today's Times, Nicholas Kristof writes that the teachers' union has been a major impediment to improving urban schools. He discusses the Steven Brill article in the New Yorker about the Rubber Room. We talked about that article here.
This column makes me happy for a couple of reasons. First, I'm glad that we've had a few columns from the NYT this past month on education policy. Education reform hasn't been on the public agenda for a while. The economy, hopeless wars, and health care have been on the top of the list. Maybe this column, along with Paul Krugman's recent piece, will get us talking again.
Second, I'm glad that someone with bona fide liberal credentials is discussing how the teachers unions have interfered with real urban education reform.
I think that education policy is a great opening for the GOP to start rebuilding on. It's important to everyone and minority communities actually favor a lot of 'conservative' solutions like vouchers, charter schools and weakening the power of teachers' unions.
Posted by: Mike at The Big Stick | October 15, 2009 at 10:33 AM