AM News: Education On The Middle Burner For Obama, Romney

Vouchers Unspoken, Romney Hails School Choice  NYT: “Voucher” is a fighting word in education, so it may be understandable that when Mitt Romney speaks about improving the nation’s schools, he never uses that term.

Obama Uses Aid, Executive Muscle to Drive Education Agenda EdWeek: Now, as President Obama prepares to face the electorate again, there's little question of where he stands on some of the most hotly debated issues—and little doubt that, if re-elected, he plans to stick with his education redesign agenda.

Nearly 90 percent of Chicago teachers authorize strike  Chicago SunTimes: Schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard Monday called the largest strike authorization mandate in Chicago Teachers Union history a reflection of local “frustration” and national “anger’’ from teachers tired of being “vilified.’’ 

Judge poised for final ruling on teacher evaluation system as LAUSD board meets SPCR:  "Academic Growth over Time" is a measurement system developed by the district using state test scores that forms the basis of its current pilot program involving 700 teachers, who have volunteered to try having student progress included as a measurement in their evaluations.

Central Regional, N.J., High Schools More Expensive Than Harvard HuffPostEdu: The cost to taxpayers to send each student to high school in the resort town of Seaside Park, N.J. is $112,000 -- double the tuition at Harvard's medical school, notes theVineland Daily Journal. 

Comments

[Bruce]

Vouchers may prove a useful idea for our secondary schools -- particularly if we can get our families sufficiently well educated to understand what matters when choosing a school -- but for smaller children who shouldn't be riding buses to escape lousy neighborhood schools we'll need other solutions. So the Democrats supporting traditional approaches to good primary education and the Republicans touting market mechanisms give voters split decisions about whom to support (in educational matters; in others choices can be more obvious, ideological dividing lines are more established). Our two-party system can make life politically inconvenient for citizens in the middle, and recalls to mind the need for third parties and alternative solutions.

[Sarah]

Wow, 90 percent? I didn’t think it was that bad, as abysmal as I know it’s been for years now. You’d really think that kind of disapproval rating would send Chicago officials a message.

[Sarah]

And it’s funny that Romney didn’t directly address vouchers, when, track record-wise, he’s been all for them. And it’s confusing that the GOP is apparently happy about such a policy... it looks more and more like he picked a side simply to run against Obama, and has trouble keeping in line with core GOP values. But that’s politics, I suppose.