June 26, 2007
New Democrats In New York State On Education
As described by our Republican friend up north in Albany, Tom Carroll, on the issue of public charter schools:
"The under 50 crowd in the Democratic party is pro-charter. The old guard is anti-charter. The Young Turks are now in power. Eventually, the old guard will fade away."
Perhaps I'll start changing the "DFER Qoute of the Week" feature on the front page of this site to a daily feature, as this would make a good one. Also, the National Education Association is doing its annual national hand-wringing session next week, meaning all of the Democrats running for president will be on hand to pander. Should be lots of good quotes there.
Anyway, this Tom Carroll quote came from a new report on New York's recent battle to lift the cap on charter schools that was put out by Paul Hill's prolific outfit, the Center On Reinventing Public Education, at the University of Washington.
There are some good ideas in the report, by Lisa Stulberg, including requiring that in order for school districts to get extra money each time they lose students to better peforming charter schools (something called 'transition aid' or "rewarding failure',) districts must show on paper that they are actually doing something to make themselves less crappy.
