For months, pundits of all persuasions have debated whether or not President Obama will turn out to be a bona fide education reformer. But now, the wait is over! We don't have to keep speculating; with him in power and making decisions, we can start keeping track instead. And that's what you can do with our brand-new, spiffy-nifty Obama Administration Education Reform-o-Meter !
Here's how it works: Whenever Team Obama makes a major announcement???regarding policy, personnel, etc.???I'll give it a reform rating, from Ice Cold (think: Reg Weaver nominated as Deputy Secretary) to Red Hot (think: teacher tenure abolished by executive order). I'll also give the news a ranking from 1 to 10 in terms of significance. Those ratings and rankings will be fed into a gigantic super-computer (OK, crunched in an Excel spreadsheet) and will spit out an ever-evolving cumulative assessment of just how reform-minded President Obama and his team have been to date.
Now, you might say, why does Mike Petrilli get to decide Obama's Reform-o-Meter rating? Simple: because I came up with the idea. But since that's not really the spirit of Web 2.0, you get to play too. Each time the Reform-o-Meter is brought out of the closet, YOU get to register YOUR vote. These reader ratings will be tallied too; we'll see if they differ much from my own.
Sound good? Let's get started. We have a little catch-up to do, as there have been, by my count, two significant education decisions made to date. We'll tackle the second (the stimulus package) tomorrow, but let's start with some old business today.
Education Reform-o-Meter Rating Number One: The selection of Arne Duncan as Secretary of Education
Famously, Arne (???You can call me Arne ???) Duncan was viewed as the ???consensus candidate??? that could bridge the reform and establishment wings of the Democratic Party. There was some truth to this; someone like Linda Darling Hammond, who is close to the teacher union and ed school types, would have been a huge disappointment to reformers, while someone like Joel Klein, who has been a polarizing and brash critic of the establishment, would have angered the traditional education groups. If Duncan really did ???split the middle,??? that would argue for a rating of ???neutral??? on our scale.
But in truth, Arne isn't right down the middle of these two groups. While the teachers unions supported his nomination, and while Duncan has consistently pushed for greater education funding and more flexibility under No Child Left Behind, his actions and statements put him closer to the reform camp than the establishment group. His willingness to shut down failing schools , for example, shows a toughness and resolve that gives reformers reason to cheer. His support for charter schools appears to be deep and abiding. And his disdain for the single salary schedule makes my own heart go pitter-patter.
So Arne Duncan's selection has to be considered at least ???Luke Warm,??? but I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt and throw my vote for a full-fledged ???Warm .??? Maybe he'll surprise me and turn out to be Red Hot.
And how important was this decision that Obama made? I'd rank it an 8 on a scale of 1 to 10. ???Personnel is policy,??? after all, and most likely Secretary Duncan will be making most of the day-to-day decisions on federal education policy over the next four (or eight) years.
Do you agree with my assessment? Cast your vote below.
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