Jay Mathews asks, on his blog:
Is it possible to establish academic rivalries between high schools, as we now have athletic rivalries? Can an urban school with a large portion of low-income students dare challenge an affluent suburban school in the level and sophistication of its teaching and learning?
Probably possible. Definitely won't be as big a deal as sports rivalries. Why not? For the same reason that professional writers don't have groupies and aren't ushered past long lines and velvet ropes and given free bottles of Ciroc and professional basketball players do and are. Just how it is. (Sigh.)
In other news: AP reports on a new study that finds that ?the number of public school teachers has reached a decade-low in California,? and the ?number of people enrolled in university teacher training programs fell from more than 75,000 to fewer than 45,000 between 2002 and 2008.? The state's budget crisis is blamed. The article is all doom and gloom, but one wonders: Is this ?shortage? necessarily a bad thing?
?Liam Julian, Bernard Lee Schwartz Policy Fellow