Steal This Education Agenda

While he and I respectfully disagree on whether vouchers should be on of the many tools in the school reform tool kit, Andy Rotherham consistently writes some of the best stuff on this topic.  Some great advice to the Presidential contenders here.  This is my favorite line, which underscores the immoral and shameful capitulation on school reform in my party:

Why education politics are even worse than you think: Pushing for radical reforms to help poor and minority children in failing schools will get you labeled "conservative," while fighting to preserve a demonstrably failing status quo makes you a great "liberal." Go figure.

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Steal This Education Agenda

By: Andrew J. Rotherham and Richard Whitmire
April 17, 2007 05:28 PM EST

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0407/3567.html

Political memo to: Hillary, John(s), Mitt, Barack, Rudy and other '08 aspirants

From: Andrew J. Rotherham and Richard Whitmire

Subject: Why you need to really care about education

Conventional wisdom holds that the Iraq war will be issue No. 1. Yet issues such as education matter, too, because they help voters form a broader, more comprehensive profile of candidates. Remember George W. Bush's 2000 "compassionate conservative" shtick?