- You know how the old ditty goes: Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly, Chris Christie gotta churlishly analogize all political conflict to a bar fight. In an interview this week, CNN’s Jake Tapper asked the New Jersey governor which political adversary he’d most like to “punch in the face”; without reframing the question, he launched into one of his trademark diatribes against teachers’ unions. Everyone knows that Christie’s a combative politician who has struggled mightily to get his state’s public employee pension system under control. And Fordham yields to no one in our antipathy for union excess and overreach. But viable leaders can’t allow themselves to be baited into silly threats against political constituencies that aren’t going away. Teachers’ unions are to be curbed, cajoled, prodded, persuaded, and challenged. Not cold-cocked.
- We’re not sure if it has anything to do with those infamous cooling towers, but something strange must be behind a wave of uncomfortable honesty overtaking New York City. First, a recent graduate of Queens’s William Cullen Bryant High School wrote a letter to the New York Post claiming that she hadn’t actually earned the credits counting toward her diploma. The eighteen-year-old skipped class, neglected her homework, and missed a final exam, but somehow ended up graduating anyway. Her teacher later claimed that she’d passed the student due to the “tremendous amount of pressure” to boost graduation rates, believing that it was in “the school’s best interest” to make a mockery of academic standards. The sudden outbreak of candor is startling, and it looks like this incident isn’t the only trouble brewing at Bryant High. One thing’s clear: The school’s namesake, one of America’s great learned men and a former Post editor himself, isn’t resting too peacefully these days.
- The Progressive Policy Institute’s Diane Carew has a terrific take on the skyrocketing cost of higher education. Citing new research on the plight of frustrated job-seekers with some or no college, she deftly counters the push among Democratic presidential candidates for “debt-free college,” achieved either through total debt forgiveness or tuition regulation. As Carew puts it, “we need better workforce preparedness options for those without a college degree, not simply debt-free college.” Fordham wholeheartedly agrees. That’s why we’ve stumped for options like career and technical education, workplace apprenticeships, and alternative industry credentials, all of which can help kids make their way to the middle class without taking on coursework they don’t want and debt they can’t handle. PPI has been issuing the same call recently, and we’re always happy to find an ally in the fight for social mobility.
