In 1998, at a luncheon in Chicago, former superintendent, activist and now-icon Howard Fuller was on an education panel with an up-and-coming state senator. Barack Obama told the audience that vouchers were a “distraction,” and said those who support them don’t want to tackle the difficulties of changing the “entire[Read More…]
Tag: Barack Obama
Education crosscurrents at the RNC, DNC
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie won applause at the RNC with his zinger, “They believe in teacher’s unions. We believe in teachers.” Ditto for former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum when he said President Obama’s solution to a failing education system “has been to deny parents choice, attack private schools and[Read More…]
A proclamation worth noting
A presidential proclamation is rarely news, but Barack Obama’s continued embrace of charter schools is notable for its inclusiveness of alternative forms of public education, as evidenced by this statement proclaiming this week as National Charter Schools Week: In communities across our country, successful public charter schools help put children on[Read More…]
An unsettling setback
It may have drawn bigger headlines if President Obama had supported the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship, but his continued opposition to the program is all the more disappointing for its tenor. The White House’s most recent assertion that the program has proven ineffective reads more like a screed from the National Education Association, not from a president[Read More…]
President signals support for district school that operates more like a charter
Most policy watchers measuring the impact of the State of the Union have responded to President Obama’s calls to reform public education with disappointment, but some have leavened their criticism with details that have been slow to stand out. “The education passages didn’t have a lot of substance but they[Read More…]