Comments on: Lost http://www.eiaonline.com/intercepts/2009/10/02/lost-2/ A listening post monitoring public education and teachers' unions. Sat, 04 Feb 2012 13:02:34 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Darren http://www.eiaonline.com/intercepts/2009/10/02/lost-2/comment-page-1/#comment-2893 Darren Sat, 03 Oct 2009 00:18:13 +0000 http://www.eiaonline.com/intercepts/?p=2194#comment-2893 Now if we can just get the press, which doesn't accept union statements at face value, to go to the California Teachers Empowerment Network to get a non-union view, things would be looking up. Now if we can just get the press, which doesn’t accept union statements at face value, to go to the California Teachers Empowerment Network to get a non-union view, things would be looking up.

]]> By: allen http://www.eiaonline.com/intercepts/2009/10/02/lost-2/comment-page-1/#comment-2892 allen Fri, 02 Oct 2009 23:41:18 +0000 http://www.eiaonline.com/intercepts/?p=2194#comment-2892 Testing, accountability, and performance pay have all been around for a long time as issues and made essentially no dent in the education debate. Accountability, in the form of state-level testing, was long ago defanged to the modest extent the idea ever had much bite. The big change, I believe, is that there's now a direction for critics of the educational status quo to advance towards rather then just fleeing the inefficiency, ineffectiveness and inertia of the district-based system. Charters to a greater extent, vouchers to a lesser, provide that goal towards which reform proponents want to move and a distinct goal is a politically-salable position whereas it's pretty tough to formulate policy to satisfy a desire for something, anything, else. Testing, accountability, and performance pay have all been around for a long time as issues and made essentially no dent in the education debate. Accountability, in the form of state-level testing, was long ago defanged to the modest extent the idea ever had much bite.

The big change, I believe, is that there’s now a direction for critics of the educational status quo to advance towards rather then just fleeing the inefficiency, ineffectiveness and inertia of the district-based system.

Charters to a greater extent, vouchers to a lesser, provide that goal towards which reform proponents want to move and a distinct goal is a politically-salable position whereas it’s pretty tough to formulate policy to satisfy a desire for something, anything, else.

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