- Education reformers are right to prioritize the closing of “achievement gaps”—the disparities in academic outcomes separating comparatively advantaged (and primarily white) students from their low-income and minority peers. But there’s such a thing as prosecuting the achievement gap beyond its proportion, as this Hechinger Report story on Kentucky schools illustrates. While surveying the state’s testing progress since its (propitiously early) adoption of the Common Core, author Luba Ostashevsky focuses heavily on the fact that white third graders have increased reading proficiency by twice the amount that their black classmates have (4 percent vs. 2 percent). It’s certainly true that we’d like to see those gains realized equitably, but it’s also worth highlighting—and celebrating—the fact that both groups are doing better than they were previously. Regardless of their background, most elementary schoolers know enough math to understand that achievement isn’t a zero-sum proposition.
- The political challenges around reform can be enough to make you pine for a benevolent education dictator to establish rigorous academic standards, ample choice in schooling, and unlimited recess for all. But put down that scepter, Jefe Duncan—most of the truly important policy decisions are still made at the state level, and that’s why it’s so important to elect good governors. In Governor Nathan Deal, Georgia has an executive wise enough to push for an updated school funding formula and an improved teacher compensation model. But after shooting down two controversial Republican proposals on guns and gay marriage, Deal has lost much of his capital with his own party. Now, GOP state legislators are threatening to block his schooling agenda, potentially endangering a long-awaited plan to create a localized version of Louisiana’s Recovery School District. What’s the point of electing the right guy when he’s not allowed to do the right thing?
- The New York State Senate is debating whether to extend mayoral control over New York City Schools to Mayor Bill de Blasio. They should extend it, period—executive prerogatives over big urban districts are critical, and the Big Apple derived particular benefit from the system under previous Mayor Michael Bloomberg. But as Manhattan Institute scholar Marcus Winters writes in the Daily News, Mayor de Blasio’s record on education isn’t without blemishes. Quite aside from his demonstrated wish to stab at Eva Moskowitz even from Hell’s heart, de Blasio has made some disquieting moves away from accountability, such as abandoning letter grades for schools. His administration also reportedly plans to eliminate annual student testing growth from school quality reports. With or without mayoral control, New York can do better than that.
- The average American voter basically knows nothing. Deprived of meaningful instructional time spent on history or social studies during his academic career, he pulls the lever every four years based on no particular sense of what the nation’s leaders should actually be expected accomplish in matters foreign or domestic. Personal attacks win his support; uncommonly punctuated candidate logos leave him cold. That’s why Washington Post contributor David Harsanyi has called for ignorant voters to be purged from the rolls through the use of the citizenship civics test. After all, if you can’t name the current vice president, you shouldn’t be allowed to vote for the next one, right? Well, no, actually—that’s insane. We definitely should not implement a de facto poll tax in the twenty-first century, and here’s hoping Harsanyi’s modest proposal was meant solely in jest. But it’s worth wondering what else we might want to use the citizenship exam for.
Policy Priority:
Topics:
