The Bloomberg Bow-Out

The only contender with experience trying to reform a huge school district confirmed today that he won't make a presidential bid. In a New York Times op-ed, Mayor Michael Bloomberg made it official, but also took a few shots at the surviving candidates for ignoring realities he assumes they know to be true, including this about schools:

"They must know that we can’t fix our schools without holding teachers, principals and parents accountable for results."


Richard Whitmire

Education: The wind in Obama's sails?

Have you noticed that ever since Barack Obama announced his education platform he's suddenly leading in Iowa and getting more press attention?

Note to the other candidates: Voters are interested in education.

OK, so maybe Obama's new momentum can't ALL be attributed to the education proposals he's making. I suppose having the world's most popular talk show host campaigning for him in Iowa might be a factor.

And there was that intriguing breakfast meet up with Michael Bloomberg, the popular Democratic mayor of New York. (That was such a circus the waitress who earned a $10 tip on a $17 bill from Obama was the subject of a whole separate story in the next day's Daily News.)

Even so, the Obama education plan has people talking in South Carolina, another important primary state. On a conference call with Palmetto State reporters, Obama explained further his views on testing and teacher incentives.

Meanwhile, Obama dipped his toe in the debate over bilingual vs. English-only programs for English language learners, coming down strongly in the bilingual camp in a Scripps News Service story about where the candidates stand on the issue.

Despite the surge of interest in his campaign, not all the Obama press has been good when it comes to education. He drew a quick rebuke from Mitt Romney recently when he admitted to students in New Hampshire that he was a goof off in high school who tried drugs and drank before getting his act together. Romney said he wasn't sure that was a message students needed to hear from a potential role model.

This post also appears on my education blog Get on the Bus.

(Image credit: Wall Street Journal)

New York City wins Broad prize

Mayor Bloomberg took a big gamble in seizing control of New York's schools, and now the payoff matches the gamble -- the Broad award for school reform, accepted today.

Said the Mayor: Today's result demonstrates that New York City's school reforms are raising achievement among our students, particularly minority students, to levels that weren't considered possible just a few years ago, and this award recognizes the hard work of the teachers, students and parents and acknowledges that we are heading in the right direction.

Bloomberg has said he wants to held accountable for changing the school culture there. Should he decide to dive into the '08 race, this would give his reforms credibility. It certainly would raise the profile of education issues in the race.

Richard Whitmire

Mayor Bloomberg on NCLB

Okay, The Mayor hasn't exactly declared, but he's saying more about education than most of the candidates. And what he has to say is rooted in hands-on reform rather than hypothetical policy tweaking. So that makes him newsworthy to us.

Here's The Mayor in today's Washington Post discussing No Child Left Behind. At first glance the words sound uncontroversial, but this issue of the federal government possibly stepping in to crack the whip on inequitable distribution of teachers is likely to prove a big deal:

No factor in a school matters more to the academic success of children than the quality of the teachers and principal. To close the achievement gap, we must close the teacher-quality gap. Too often, it's the least qualified and least experienced who teach poor and minority children.
First, we must require that states and school districts distribute the best teachers equitably across schools. In the past, the federal government has only paid lip service to equitable distribution.
More important, we need to support teachers to help them continuously grow in the profession and increase the supply of excellent teachers in all schools. Last week, Congress took a step in this direction by approving funding for scholarships for excellent undergraduate students who commit to teaching in high-need public schools.
We should also build career ladders that reward teachers for gaining new knowledge and for taking on leadership roles in their schools. We should assist principals through instruction in management and the use of data to help their schools succeed. And teachers and principals who excel deserve a raise. While respecting collective bargaining agreements, we should offer performance pay to hardworking and talented teachers based on fair, proven and objective criteria. When school districts collaborate with local teachers unions, performance pay systems work -- and children benefit.
If we don't treat teachers as valued partners in our public schools, we'll continue to face an unacceptable teacher shortage, and children will pay the price.

Richard Whitmire