Here's more on how Google, blogs, etc. supposedly turn our brains into grape Jell-o. (Previous post here.)

Whew, that last post was a long one, and a bit heavy for these hot summer days. Nonetheless, sometimes we must wade into the tall grass, scythes in hand, and clear away the overgrowth. Bad arguments, like snakes, fester if such periodic maintenance is neglected.

Anyhow, here are some thoughts from the Washington Post editors on Michelle Rhee:

IT'S APPARENT that some D.C. teachers union officials don't think much of the people they represent. How else to explain their objections to Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee speaking to teachers about pending contract talks?

When we at the office have our tippling time, Coby tends to hang back, uncomfortable, no doubt, with all the "these young kids" bashing that transpires. In fact, Coby has often argued solidly (see here and here) that young people aren't to blame for all that ails the world. ??

USA Today's Greg Toppo gives him some back-up.

Campaign K-12 astutely points out that the number of "surrogates" representing the Obama campaign appears to be expanding infinitely. This morning one of those surrogates, Mike Johnston, sat down in the hot seat for a "reporter roundtable" with the national education press corps here at Fordham. (Last month we hosted, you guessed it, Lisa Graham Keegan to speak on behalf of the McCain campaign.)

Mike, like Lisa, is a friend and colleague and did a heckuva job fielding (and sometimes deferring) tough questions. He stuck to the Obama script, more or less, but a few interesting details emerged, at least for me:

-- When asked by the Washington Post editorial writer about the Senator's position on the D.C. voucher program, he stated bluntly that, as far as he knows, Obama is opposed to school vouchers "in any context." Perhaps that hard line will soften if Obama becomes president, particularly if he sends his own daughters to a private school once he moves to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

-- He wouldn't say if Obama supports national standards and testing, though it was clear that Johnston sees the logic. He did refer to an Obama promise to bring the governors together to encourage them to work toward common standards--probably about as much as a president could do on that touchy issue right now.

-- He stated quite strongly that Obama had "no intention" of backing away from NCLB's accountability provisions--though he does want to get a fuller, richer picture of student achievement than can be provided by reading and math tests.

-- When asked about the McCain campaign's strong support for virtual schools, Johnston refused to say that Obama endorses that particular approach, just that the Senator likes public school choice and "programs that work." I asked if that was because of the teachers unions' staunch opposition to virtual schools; ??Johnston argued that Obama (Mr. Postpartisanship) simply isn't about promoting "certain ideologies," but pragmatic solutions, and that some virtual schools "work," and some don't.

The talk of transcending ideology is of course consistent with the rhetoric coming out of the Obama campaign, but I'm not sure how to square it with the Senator's position on vouchers. Any fair reading of the research would say that vouchers "work" in terms of boosting the achievement of poor students--or at least several voucher programs do. So isn't his opposition to vouchers, nonetheless, for "ideological" reasons? Why else be opposed to them "in any context"? Surely it wouldn't have to do with--you guessed it--his support from the teachers unions.

I hope someone over at Education Sector gives a big hug to Kevin Carey, who is, judging by this post, in a foul mood, perhaps because he's trying unsuccessfully to make the case that one program at FSU (with which I was, as an undergraduate,??quite involved) successfully refutes affirmative action's problems, and that??America is??not currently besieged by all sorts of wacky educational theories and methodologies that were born in the 1960s and 1970s. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm??smack in the middle of Miles Gone By. I'm at the part where Buckley skis with Milton Friedman in Switzerland, just before he jets off to have tea with Maragaret Thatcher and right after he strangles 19 communist agents with his toes. Now, how to work this all into a blog post about education....

While America Aged: How Pension Debt Ruined General Motors, Stopped the NYC Subways, Bankrupted San Diego, and Loom as the Next Financial Crisis
Roger Lowenstein
The Penguin Press
2008

The economic news this summer has been bleak. We've witnessed, and felt the pain of, bank closures, surging oil prices, growing inflation, and higher unemployment. When it comes to the economy, few of us can bring ourselves to think about problems like our looming retirement crisis, but Roger Lowenstein's sobering book While America Aged shows we ignore it at our peril.

Lowenstein, a veteran Wall-Street Journal reporter, notes that America has approximately 38 million senior citizens, a number that will nearly double to 72 million in a generation and reach one in five by 2030. The Census projects that Ohioans over 65 will increase from 13 percent to 20 percent between 2000 and 2030. Lowenstein argues we are "sitting on a retirement time bomb." A third of Americans do not have any retirement savings-no pension, no 401(k), no private retirement account of any kind.

For those with a pension, Lowenstein shows, assets are grossly inadequate to meet future costs. Using numbers from the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (the FDIC of private pensions), Lowenstein reports that, "In the private sector, employers' pension funds are cumulatively, an astounding $350 billion in deficit," and the public sector is even in worse shape. States and localities that have promised pensions "to millions of present and future retired policemen, teachers, clerical workers, and others are hundreds of billions of dollars behind on their payments to state pension funds." This is money that taxpayer are on the hook for as public pensions can never be defaulted upon.

How we get in this mess? Lowenstein does a masterful job of answering the question by weaving together common threads from the financial and political disasters that have been General Motors, the New York City Subway System and the City of San Diego. All three entities went from being fiscally healthy, indeed robust, to bankrupt. All three made extravagant promises to future retirees, under pressure from labor unions to do so, that they could not afford. General Motors, for example, controlled 51 percent of the world's automobile market in 1955. By 2007, this figure was down to less than 25 percent and falling. General Motors downfall was, Lowenstein argues, directly connected to the fact that it had become a "pension firm on wheels." By the late 1990s, each GM employee was working to support two retired GM workers. Others in the private sector have it worse. By 2001, Bethlehem Steel had one worker for every eight retirees because retirees are living longer.

Of course, no one forced GM to agree to such largesse. They did so expecting, arrogantly, that they would continue to be the dominant automaker, as no doubt did the UAW leadership. In fact, company executives completely failed to read the changing market, both in terms of the quality of the cars they were building and in their attractiveness to buyers, particularly from the standpoints of fuel efficiency and cost. Now, after fighting against increased fuel-efficiency standards for years, the company is once again experiencing déjà vu with the effects of high gasoline prices on its bottom line and its stock price.

New York City and San Diego have made pension promises to public-sector employees that are staggering. Overall, New York City's pension bill soared from $695 million in 2000 to $3.67 billion in 2005. Lowenstein notes this figure is expected to double again by 2009. By the summer of 2005, the San Diego municipal pension fund was $1.7 billion in the hole-a debt equivalent to $6,000 for every San Diego family of four.

Lowenstein's book is a must read for all who care about America's future economic prosperity. It must be noted, the challenges described by Lowenstein are challenges faced by Ohio in spades, as we showed in our 2007 study Golden Peaks and Perilous Cliffs: Rethinking Ohio's Teacher Pension System (see here).

The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation (our sister organization) is excited to be sponsoring two new charter schools opening in August in Columbus. They will be run by exceptional young school leaders with extensive school leadership training from two of the nation's premier school management programs-the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) (see here) and Building Excellent Schools (BES) (see here). The KIPP Journey Academy is located in the Linden Park neighborhood and ultimately will serve 331 students in grades five through eight when it is at full enrollment in 2012-2013. In 2008, KIPP Journey expects to serve 96 fifth graders. The Columbus Collegiate Academy is located in the Weinland Park neighborhood and ultimately will serve 336 students in grades six through eight when it is at full enrollment in 2011-2012. In 2008, the Columbus Collegiate Academy expects to serve 112 sixth graders.

We believe strongly that the efforts of KIPP Journey school leader Carina Robinson and Columbus Collegiate Academy school leader Andrew Boy will pay big dividends for the children they are privileged to educate.

Carina Robinson, originally from Cleveland, is the founding school leader of KIPP Journey Academy and a graduate of the KIPP School Leadership Program. She taught sixth-grade math at the KIPP Ujima Village Academy in Baltimore, Md., and, prior to joining KIPP, Carina taught for 10 years in Ohio.

Andrew Boy spent five years at the W.E.B. DuBois Academy in Cincinnati, an urban charter school where he designed the science program and was science lab director. From 2005 to 2006, he was lead teacher for CSRIC, a new school within the DuBois school network. In 2006, Andrew joined the Building Excellent Schools Fellowship in Boston.

We look forward to seeing these schools grow and excel in the coming years. We know these educators are dedicated to helping all their children fulfill their potential and live out their dreams, and we are honored to introduce these two leaders to Gadfly readers in the Q&A below.

Q. What are you anticipating is going to happen that first day when kids come to class?

Carina: Wow! ...This is crucial to the rest of the year. [You] talk about this with your teachers. When they (students) come in you want them to know that this is a place that is safe, that it is structured. We have a plan that, together, is going to be successful for all of us. We don't want them to come and it appears that we don't know what we are doing. Day One with the kids is who are we and why we are here. That is the message of the day for the kids-the same thing you do with your staff.

Andrew: What I think about the night before are the speeches that I am going to give to the kids. How (are they) going to be delivered? What's different about us? How this school is different from anywhere else you've been? That is really the underlying theme for the first day. Why it is cool to go to school here? Why it is cool to come to school in a uniform. Why this is a safe place to be who you are.

Q. Do you still find that parents are surprised, for example, with the emphasis on a dress code, even though you may have talked about uniforms with them a half a dozen times?

Carina: Yes. They hear you, but are we serious? Maybe if I come to school with my shirt a little untucked, maybe they (the teachers) won't say anything. It is the idea that you really do have those high expectations that you talk about....The KIPP shirt is about who I am. I am going to go to college in 2016. I do work hard. I am nice and the shirt is an extension of that. It truly speaks to who they believe they are and who we want them to believe they are.

Andrew: We sweat the small stuff. It starts with what you wear when you come to school, how you go to the bathroom, how you walk from one classroom to the next, and so, when you really pay attention to the small stuff, it alleviates the bigger problems that can come from working with the age group that we work with.

Q. You lay it all out in a home visit?

Carina: There was one home visit where that was tested. I went through the whole thing and the mom really wanted this. The child broke into tears. She started crying and stated that she didn't want to go. It was at that point I said, "Whoa". I looked at the mom and said that this is a three-way agreement-it is teacher, parent, and child. In order for this to work, it is going to take all of us working hard. I cannot work hard for you if you're not willing to try it. I got up and I left. It was a week and a half later that mom called me back and said that her daughter was ready.

Andrew: The reasons [for not coming to the school] are usually tied to things like, "I won't know anybody at your school because my friends aren't going there," or "I play sports after school and I can't be in school until 4:30." Those are reasons why we have lost kids....I've also had a parent who said that, "It is a lot of homework and my child gets stressed out easily and I don't know if it is going to be good for her health." My retort there is that it is certainly going to be challenging, life is going to be challenging, and there is no better time than right now to begin to learn how to deal with those challenges.

Q. Is discipline, following rules, a key to kids learning when they go to your schools?

Carina: The kids I'm going to get have not been held accountable to established rules and norms.... So in the first year, it is going to be that you will be held very, very accountable, and these are the things that are set in place. The goal is that once those basics are in place, and we've had the opportunity to address their bad habits that have compounded over the years, then we can take it to the next level....We have been thinking about how we are going to scaffold the discipline program in our school, so fifth grade will look very different to eighth grade.

Andrew: We will have a gradual release of responsibility and so you have to set up that culture because, number one, you have to maximize their time. We are receiving our sixth graders at third- and fourth-grade reading levels and if we don't have structure and we are lax about things, we will never get them caught up.

Q. Was it difficult to find excellent teachers?

Carina: Yes. I will say that, for me, it was a blessing that I have some KIPP teachers that come from the KIPP network. They had family ties here in Ohio and they wanted to move back home. So that was very helpful, but for me, even with the teachers that came from KIPP, it was important for me to see them teach....

Andrew: I received approximately 500 resumes. I probably took 250 people through the selection process to find seven teachers....It was really tough to find someone who believes in the exact mission and vision that we do. That is a definite, number one prerequisite.

Q. What has been the easiest thing about starting a school in Columbus?

Carina: I have a great board of directors. They have been amazing with their amount of support. I think it has been more work than they thought it was going to be.

Andrew: The easiest thing about being in Columbus is that you have the leaders in school reform just a drive away from you. You have School Choice Ohio, the Ohio Alliance for Public Charter Schools, KidsOhio.org, and BAEO (Black Alliance for Educational Options) and, if you need information or have an issue, you can call any one of those organizations and they will do almost anything to help you.

Q. What has been the biggest challenge you've faced?

Carina: Student recruitment, because of the fact that KIPP schools have excellent reputations across the country. Then you come to Ohio where only 10 percent of the charter schools are effective-that's 30 out of 300. And then just in Columbus, in general, there are so many of them that aren't doing well, it's trying to get the buy-in of the parents....I am trying to get them to understand that this a high-quality charter school and you really need to be examining the choices that you make....The other thing is that I'm only recruiting for fifth grade. A lot of the other charter schools are K-8 and I have families who have four kids and they want all of those four kids to go to the same school....

Andrew: The most challenging piece has been with facilities; with student recruitment a close second....As Carina said, the names BES and KIPP don't mean a hill of beans here in Columbus. We can go to a lot of other metropolitan areas and, there is a little bit of pull there. No disrespect to the organizations that are not KIPP or BES, let's just say Columbus has not arrived at what works totally yet.

Q. Have the nay-sayers had any affect?

Carina: In the living rooms of the parent's I sit with, it is never a concern. They say, "Wow, you are here. I've never had a principal sit down with me and tell me what they are going to do with my child and what their commitment is." That is the conversation that drives me every single day.

Andrew: I listen to those [negative] comments and some of those...are erroneous and have no merit. Like Carina, I don't lose any sleep over it....When I tell parents that they have to withdraw the child from their current school and they go to their school and the school tells them, "Hey, you don't want to go to a charter school. They have uncertified teachers. They just want the money," and so I face some of that. Like Carina, when I sit and face the parents and they see the passion, the dedication that I have...and the personal touch I am able to give to them because we only have 112 students, they say to themselves, "I want to trust this person."

Q. Is the Columbus market looking receptive to your efforts?

Carina: Yes....What excited me is that we can begin to spark the idea that there are high-quality choices and really put a different face on charter schools. I'm thinking about a different face statewide for charter schools. We just don't have a lot of positive images of charter schools in this state. They are completely overshadowed by all of the negative things that occur.

Andrew: I have a really great organization, Building Excellent Schools, behind me. I have a great sponsor, The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, and I think that when you associate yourself with great people, and you put yourself in situations where you have awesome people working under you, that it is hard to think negatively....I know that we both face a tremendous amount of pressure to be successful.

Q. How serious was the conversation of your organizations about not coming here?

Carina: I can't say that I honestly know the answer to that because that process took place prior to me knowing that I was actually coming here. Columbus really had to sell itself to the KIPP Foundation as far as a place that KIPP should come and open a school. I can't say that I know what those conversations sounded like.

Andrew: We are the second BES...school in Ohio-the other one is in Cleveland. What I know are the challenges we faced this past year has caused BES to pause and really think about whether they want to move forward in Ohio. It is going to take both of our schools to do to well before they would consider it again. So, yes, this atmosphere is one that really has said to a great organization like Building Excellent Schools, You're not as welcome here as you are in other cities such as Boston, Washington, D.C., or New York City.

This month the State Board of Education officially kicked off its search for the state's new superintendent of public instruction. The search is occurring amid continued uncertainty about the actual role and responsibilities of the superintendent if Gov. Strickland gets his way with the creation of a cabinet-level director of education. The board and governor seem in agreement on the wish list of qualifications the next superintendent should have (see here). The hunt is on for a state superintendent with experience as a district superintendent, but some board members and other thoughtful observers such as the Columbus Dispatch aren't sold on seeking a traditional educator to lead the education department (see here and here).

Five months after announcing his intent to overhaul the state's public-education system, Gov. Strickland commenced this week with a series of "conversations" around the state to gather public input on education in Ohio (see here). The governor's office is billing these 12 "Conversations on Education" as giving "local citizens the opportunity to share their thoughts and vet proposed ideas." But the meetings are open to invited guests only. Jane and Joe Ohioan will need to watch them on public TV or online and submit their thoughts to the governor in writing (see here).

Strickland says he is still formulating his plan for the future of the state's K-12 system (including his promised school-funding fix), but the State Board of Education has shared its plan. At its July meeting, the board approved a "vision document" that spells out a series of objectives and strategies intended to help Ohio meet its 10-year goal that "all students will graduate well prepared for success" (see here). The board also approved a set of 39 legislative recommendations ranging from cleaning up existing legislative language to instituting new programs and policies (see here).

Some of the recommendations are plain common sense. Eliminate pesky calamity days and still ensure that all students receive a full year of instruction by changing the minimum school year from one based on days to one based on total classroom hours. Grant high-school credit to eighth graders who take high-school courses. Remove the "operator appeal" provision that provides an avenue by which a charter-school operator can remove the school's governing authority.

Other recommendations don't make much sense at all. The board is proposing a pilot project of five "innovation schools" in which districts "have the flexibility to implement new practices to improve student achievement by lifting many of the restrictions that schools typically face." Innovation in public schools is welcome and much-needed, but it is unclear how these schools will differ from the state's charter-school program. In fact, at least 49 districts already use the charter option to operate flexible, less-regulated schools. A smarter move would be to shore up the charter sector to be a more desirable option for districts who want to try something really new and innovative (see recommendations for doing just that here).

While the governor and state board wrangle over policy and politics, the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) is beginning to show signs of the pressure that comes with political turmoil and leadership uncertainty. The annual August release of achievement data and some 5,000 "local report cards"-one for every public school building and district in the state-is more challenged and complicated than years past. ODE has not yet scheduled a release date for the report cards and attributes the delay to the inclusion of value-added data in this year's reports as well as working with a new printer. But this is also the first year since the introduction of Ohio's standards and assessment system that Mitch Chester has not led the process. Chester was the driving force behind Ohio's academic accountability system and his position at ODE has gone unfilled since his departure in May to become Massachusetts' education commissioner. It likely will not be filled as the department seeks ways to save money and awaits its new superintendent.

Next month ODE will lose another top staffer in Associate Superintendent Paolo DeMaria, arguably the most knowledgeable person in state government when it comes to school funding and education finance. DeMaria has overseen the state's mammoth school-funding operations and, for the past year, has guided the State Board of Education's school funding subcommittee through terrific work toward improving the state's education-finance system (see here). It isn't clear yet what will come of the subcommittee's work or who will take over the funding reins at ODE.

Fortunately for Ohioans, DeMaria isn't going too far. He'll join the Ohio Board of Regents and help create the internal operations and culture needed to carry out the agency's expanding mission.

In fact, one can argue, the Board of Regents seems to be the one real source of stability, leadership, and forward motion in Ohio public education. On the heels of his much-lauded 10-year strategic plan for the higher-education system (see here), Chancellor Eric Fingerhut-with support from Gov. Strickland-has made major strides in a matter of only a few months. All of the state's public universities have signed on to join the "Voluntary System of Accountability" so that the public can review and compare school performance with each other and with other schools across the country. The Ohio G.I. Promise will modify the state's residency requirements so that all veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces (as well as their spouses and dependents) can attend Ohio's colleges and universities at in-state tuition rates. The Board of Regents was also largely unaffected by the governor's recent budget cuts (see here).

Whether by design or by default, Ohio's higher-education system is being bolstered by a strong leader who has a solid vision and unbridled support from the governor while the state's K-12 system flounders in limbo. Is this part of the governor's grand plan, setting Eric Fingerhut up to rescue the K-12 system and become the Ohio Education Czar after all (see here)? Time will tell, but in the meantime it is fun to speculate.

The Delaware-Union County Educational Service Center (ESC) and the ESC of Franklin County will merge in January (see here), creating a multi-county agency that will serve more than 11 percent of Ohio's public-school students.

The new "ESC of Central Ohio" will serve 25 school districts in the three counties and should become a powerful voice in the education debate. It will be led by Franklin County's current superintendent, Bart Anderson, and treasurer, Alan Hutchinson. All employee contracts will be honored by the new ESC.

Ohio's 58 ESCs-soon to be 57 on Jan. 1-are outgrowths of the former county boards of education. They provide a variety of services to area schools, including professional development, special education services, curriculum and instruction planning, technology support, and business and administrative assistance. Funding comes from the Ohio Department of Education and from member districts that contract with them.

The last ESC merger was in 2007, when the Washington County ESC and Guernsey-Monroe-Noble ESC combined to form the Ohio Valley ESC. Such mergers, which usually result when member districts opt to leave one ESC for another, serve as a model for how Ohio's education system can streamline operations and reduce costs without cutting quality or quantity of educational services they provide.

Ohioans have been reticent to consolidate school districts, in large part because schools provide a sense of local identity and serve as the hearts of small communities. The same is not true of ESCs and other regional education entities. As Gov. Strickland, the State Board of Education, and local school boards look for ways to save money in the education sector, mergers and better utilization of regional service providers might be a good place to start.

Japan's famously demanding education system figures significantly in Natsuo Kirino's new novel Real World, reviewed in Sunday's New York Times books section:

"Real World" begins with a matricide. No longer willing to cooperate with the expectations of the "total idiot" who forced him to attend a prestigious high school even though he lacked the aptitude to succeed in such an environment, Worm bludgeoned his mother to death in what Terauchi, whose worldview allows no possibility of forgiveness or salvation, dismisses as a mindless, infantile response to frustration....

Welcome to present-day Tokyo, where "air pollution advisories" announce the arrival of summer vacation and where vacation isn't a holiday from the 11-month academic year, but a break to be spent in cram schools taught by brainwashed college students who advocate studying hard enough to "spit up blood" as the avenue to a "tremendous confidence ... you can build on for the rest of your life."