Joe Williams' Blog
DFER Fellow Claire Lowenstein on Teachers and Obama
By Claire Lowenstein
Dedicated teachers are always thinking about education and how they can make a difference in their classroom, with their students and even on a national level.
Last week, eleven NYC educators gathered on a mission to help this country see education from an educator's perspective. The goal was to support presidential nominee Barack Obama and to assist in crafting the party's education platform. We all agreed that education must be a focus of the next president. It must be high on the agenda and it cannot be absent any longer. That led to a consensus of the group to discuss how teachers can be more instrumental in developing policy on a national level. We perused Barack Obama's Plan For Lifetime Success Through Education and organically resonated on three topics: Investment in Zero to Five Early Childhood Education, Enlisting Parents and Communities to Support Teaching and Learning and Service Learning through involvement with the community. The group developed some key ideas to push "change" in our schools.
Continue reading "DFER Fellow Claire Lowenstein on Teachers and Obama"....
Posted by Joe Williams on July 21, 2008 9:46 PM
July 20, 2008
Happy Hour With Gov. Bob Wise
If you read this blog via a reader and don't actually visit the site, you may have missed the feature on the left side of the page which tells you about upcoming DFER events.
So now you know.
Posted by Joe Williams on July 20, 2008 6:31 PM
July 18, 2008
DFER Heroes: Check 'Em Out
What do folks like Mark Warner, James Clyburn, Sam Hoyt, Craig Johnson, Gordon Fox, Margaret Kaiser, and George Miller have in common?
Besides the fact that they are all Democrats who push the envelope on school reform issues as a matter of principle?
They are all recent additions to our DFER Heroes page, thanks to the efforts of Ben and Will, our uber-talented interns this summer.
Helps us keep them busy, nominate a new hero today! And then, once you've done that, sign our Statement of Principles and make a quick contribution so that we can continue to provide political cover for the heroes you are reading about.
Posted by Joe Williams on July 18, 2008 1:07 PM
McCain Comes Up Short on Ed
New America Foundation's Sara Mead (a DFER board member) takes an interesting look at GOP presidential nominee John McCain's movement this week on education issues and wonders why he left out early childhood investments.
Especially with regard to charter schools, Sara notes, a push for expanding accountable pre-K programs in these schools would seem to be a no-brainer.
Sara hit the same note in this DFER briefing paper on the subject.
Posted by Joe Williams on July 18, 2008 12:54 PM
July 7, 2008
Don't Go To The NEA Videotape...
Per the post below about Sen. Barack Obama's beamed-in nomination acceptance speech at the National Education Association, Mike Antonucci is reporting that the NEA re-played video of Obama's speech throughout the weekend on their jumbotrons....
Except they edited out Obama's comments about charter schools, incentive pay for teachers, and merit pay.
Posted by Joe Williams on July 7, 2008 9:16 AM
July 6, 2008
Obama Gives NEA The 'Velvet Snub'
(Velvet Snub - noun, from the Latin phrase velvetus snubus - When a politician addresses a powerful special interest group - preferably from a remote location - and stands his ground, even when doing so results in boo's and hiss' from what would otherwise be an adoring crowd.)
The mission for Sen. Barack Obama on Saturday was clear: graciously accept the (rather weak, by historical standards) endorsement of the National Education Association, point out where he and the union are in agreement on education issues, and then unapologetically point out the areas where the union (which was not much help to Obama on the campaign trail for the Democratic nomination, and in many cases, worked against him) and he do not agree.
What we saw yesterday was a candidate who is trying to live up to his image as an agent of change, one who won't be forced to play by the old rules, and one who is refreshingly willing to point out the extent of the very big problems he is trying to solve. I think he pretty much nailed it. Of course, that doesn't always go over so well with the NEA crowd. You can read USA Today reporter Greg Toppo's dispatch here.
Under the old rules, the presidential candidate is supposed to stop by to accept the union's endorsement in person. (And while Reg Weaver may have acted like he didn't mind that Obama beamed in his remarks from a hope-to-be-flipped red state, Weaver made it pretty clear in 2004 that John Kerry had committed a cardinal sin by similarly selecting to be anyplace but the NEA convention on speech day.)
Continue reading "Obama Gives NEA The 'Velvet Snub'"....
Posted by Joe Williams on July 6, 2008 8:57 AM
Elizabeth Evans Shows No Love For Cubbies
During some of the recent inter-league baseball action, my 9-year-old son remarked that it would be cool if Senator Barack Obama threw out the first pitch at one of the tense Cubs vs. White Sox games in the Windy City.
But which hat would he wear, Cubs or White Sox, I asked him. (Obama is a Sox fan, but he may need transplanted Cubs fans to carry important swing states like Michigan and Wisconsin. I remembered how silly Hillary Clinton looked when she first put on her Yankees cap and tried to pretend she had New York in her blood (we were going to vote for her anyway, no need to pretend!)
Americans (and Chicagoans) like authenticity and decisiveness in their athletic fanaticism and boosterism.
That's only one reason they should dig "info junkie," Illinois Network of Charter Schools boss (and lifelong Democrat) Elizabeth Evans -- who not only has some of Carlton Fisk's blood running through her veins, she attends 25-30 White Sox games a season, according to this light profile in Chicago Business.
The edu-politics in the Second City are going to get interesting.
Posted by Joe Williams on July 6, 2008 8:34 AM
