Obama on charter schools

From last night's NewsHour:

Barack Obama (in a speech yesterday):

"Instead of just talking about school choice, I helped pass legislation to double the number of charter schools in Chicago."

Melody Barnes (Obama advisor):

"In fact, yesterday, when he gave his speech announcing his new proposals on education, he said that he's putting additional resources into school choice. We're going to double the amount of funding for federal charter schools, charter schools that were first proposed by Democrats. ...

"He's also going to support a broader portfolio of choice -- over half-a-dozen options for parents, magnet schools, charter schools, Montessori schools, et cetera -- options for parents, so that they have an opportunity to choose the best choice -- the best option for their children."

Obama  does rule out private school vouchers, however, unlike John McCain.  So from an educational perspective, a vote for Obama is indeed a vote for the lesser of two evils.

Here's the positive spin.  The federal government still has little direct control over educational policy in this country.  As I wrote earlier, local school officials shouldn't rely on a President Obama to deliver them from the educational sins of the past eight years.  They must forge their own policies.

And Democratic partisans can rest easy in the assurance that I am not a single-issue voter.

Comments

[Steve Buel]

Education is the one place where Obama doesn't seem to get it. I wonder if it is a lack of sophistication or he just buys into the upper middle class value system in regard to education -- what's best for my kids is also what's best for everyone's kids. Hard to say. The main thing I liked about Hillary was that she saw the need to dump NCLB -- somehow she got it. Go Obama -- we are truly screwed if he doesn't make it.

[Steve R.]

We are screwed whether or not Obama wins.

The "achievement gap" folks have won, and their agenda of privatization is in place all across the nation. They created the lexicon, and no discussion of education policy at any level in this country leaves out their code words.

No Child Left Behind is not likely to be repealed under an Obama administration, and local school board members who refuse to pass resolutions condemning this law while they wait for Obama to ride in on his white horse are going to look pretty silly when little or nothing of significance changes in this regard.

Your positive spin is dead on, but unfortunately our local policy makers don't get it. At all.