Jonathan Alter offered Barack Obama, free of charge, some darn good advice in the July 21st Newsweek. Will the senator from Illinois take it? "Now Obama needs to embrace a Grand Education Bargain--much higher pay for teachers in exchange for much more accountability for performance in the classroom," writes Alter. He continues: "Good teachers need to be rewarded with more pay and respect for being members of our noblest profession. They need more resources. But they also need to be removed from the classroom when they fail to improve. Obama occasionally says as much, but goes fuzzy when it comes to how." No doubt such a "Grand Education Bargain" (which we've heard about before) would be tough for any Democrat, not just Obama, to enact, especially because that party is so beholden to teachers' unions and their unmanageable demands. But still, Alter cuts the candidate no slack. "And the next time [Obama] addresses them," Alter writes, "he should tell the unions they must change their focus from job security and the protection of ineffective teachers to higher pay and true accountability for performance--or face extinction." Tough words. Will Obama heed them, or even come close?
"Obama's No-Brainer on Education," by Jonathan Alter, Newsweek, July 21, 2008