Update: Varied Responses To "The Successful Failure Of ED In '08"

My favorite response to the piece so far has been Craig Jerald's observation that he proposed something like the empty chairs on the Mall that was done last week by the College Board's "Don't Forget Ed" campaign (" This reminded me of a stunt I pitched while I was with ED in 08 but couldn't get permission to do.") Seems like that was par for the course.  He's at @breakthecurve.

Andy Rotherham admonished that the lack of education debate this time around doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the absence of a campaign to promote education issues.  ("Someone needs explanation of correlation & causation.") 

Education researcher Kevin Kosar said he'd liked the way the piece showed that "Big money does not equal policy efficacy." (@kevinkosar)

Mike Klonsky called me the "new favorite of AEI. Extreme right-wing group with racist history." @mikeklonsky)

Thanks for the feedback, critical and otherwise.  Keep it coming here or on Twitter.  (Haven't read it yet? It's 18 pages here.)

Lots of people have asked when the next installment is going to appear, and I'm happy to say that there are at least a couple more in the works -- one about some important and generally misunderstood dynamics that took shape during the NCLB debate and continue to the present, and the other about some new variations on reform that reform refugees and others are trying around the country.  

Comments

[Sarah]

I have to agree primarily with Rotherham, but that’s the math minor in me screaming statistics. There are other factors that could have a lot to do with little education debate. Politicians could simply not want to discuss it, and therefore sidestep the issue for the most part, as I increasingly suspect is done at the administrative level.