The American Enterprise Institute's Rick Hess Patrick McGuinn has a DC-centric column up this week spotlighting what he believes to be the two competing factions in the Democratic Party attempting to determine the destiny of the so-called school reform movement.
In his view, the argument over education policy in the Democratic Party is between competing "equity and accountability narratives". On the one side - the "Equities" - are the more traditional Democrats linking back to the Great Society who insist the role of the federal government in education is to ensure that educators and schools that serve impoverished kids are given resources equal to what their better-off peers get. In Hess's McGuinn's view, "the first narrative sees public schools as generally well-performing and attributes poor student performance to the effects of poverty."
The second faction is the "accountability" driven Democrats. This faction "sees the status quo in American education as untenable, and believes that it is unlikely to change absent strong reform pressure from Washington that holds states and schools accountable for improving student performance."
In this simplistic view, one sees the same sort of story playing out in other conventional views of the Democratic Party - that there is a liberal "old guard" tied to "tired" government programs from the New Deal and Great Society vs. a more dynamic reformist "new guard" that is full of bold thinking and "innovation." And at the heart of this contest is a determination to find solutions for poor kids.
OpenLeft has asked me to turn my semi-regular diary on education into a weekly feature that updates our community on what's happening with K-12 public schools -- giving Paul a bathroom break every Sunday at 4:00pm. I'm calling the feature "Left Ed" unless someone's got a better idea.
My hope is that each recurring post will use a progressive political lens to review weekly education news (veering occasionally into in-depth commentary on a specific topic), follow-up conversations from previous diaries with pertinent new events, and counter-balance the typical blather from the MSM with what real educators and people who actually know something about education are saying about the trends in public school policy.
The feedback I've gotten on this site to my previous diaries has run the gamut from effusive to frustrated to perplexed. I'm very grateful for this response and want to continue to generate conversation that can lead to a broad understanding of where the progressive community stands on public education issues, school reform, and the Obama administration's policies regarding public schools.
So why am I doing this? Mainly, as I stated in a comment to Mark Matson in my most recent diary, to "bridge what I perceive to be the gap between progressive views of education and what most liberals see as sane and responsible policy."
To kick-off Left Ed, I'd like to hear what others in this community want my weekly effort to address. What can I provide to better prepare us all to understand and, hopefully, influence the broader public dialogue about education policy? What should we track from week-to-week to keep ourselves informed of the pros and cons of the Obama administration's actions? What should we be advocating for at local, state, and federal levels? And who are the politicians that get it right and how can we support them?
Iraq is only the half of it. Quite possibly, less than half.
As CQ barely sketches in today, a legislative logjam of epic proportions is in prospect.
For a start, we finally see that continuing resolutions are being discussed:
Pelosi, D-Calif., and other House leaders have been looking at two versions of the continuing resolution that is sure to be moved the week of Sept. 24. One version would last for five weeks, ending Nov. 2, the other for six weeks, ending Nov. 9.
Senate aides said an end date of Nov. 16 is also under discussion.
If on September 13 they're talking about November 16 - that's not frightfully promising!
