Friday, June 13, 2008

Is Obama pro education reform or more of the same?

David Brooks' opinion piece in the New York Times says there are two education camps a politician can subscribe to: The reformist and the traditionalist.

The reformist, he says, believes public schools work, but that they need to be restructured to put kids first rather than adults. He put people like D.C. schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee in this camp.

There's also the traditionalist camp, says social problems are at the root of public school troubles. They support spending on social programs, smaller class sizes, etc.

So the question is, where does Obama fall?

Brooks says right now, its not totally clear. What do you think?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

While I hope he is more of the reformist mindset, and on two occasions I have seen him in person he has cautiously pushed this viewpoint, one of his top advisers is Linda Darling-Hammond. Not exactly a pro-accountability advocate.