I recently finished reading Frederick M. Hess's new-ish book, The Same Thing Over and Over, and found myself envisioning education policy as a bar full of drunks.
The tipple of choice? For some patrons it's the Uncle Sam (one part federal meddling, add a splash of billions and stir) and for some the Milton Friedman (vouchers, straight up). A few souls swear by the Sweet Nostalgia, while others prefer the fire of the Panacea Punch. That weepy guy on the last stool? He's quaffing a Sky's the Limit, education policy's Long Island Iced Tea, a cloying mix of idealism, racial harmony, historical obliviousness, wishes, and tears, garnished with a twist of love (it'll knock you out!). Each inebriated customer in the education-policy bar is a self-styled ?school reformer??a pundit, maybe, or a policy junkie or union honcho or school-board bigwig?and each is convinced, possessed of unswayable conviction, that in his particular libation floats the answer to America's education problems. Few are the sober thinkers in this room. But Hess, sitting in the corner and sipping from a tall glass of reality, is one of them.
You really should get your hands on a copy of The Same Thing Over and Over?and then, after holding and caressing it, read the thing. The book is not uplifting, but it is real.
?Liam Julian, Bernard Lee Schwartz Policy Fellow