Everywhere we look, evidence is growing that public education reform is no longer a one-party issue. More and more prominent Democrats are joining Republicans in calling for fundamental changes in the way our public schools operate, with an emphasis on increased teacher accountability.
Who’s the top Democrat leading the call for change in education? None other than President Barack Obama, who said he will grant none of the $4.5 billion available in education stimulus money to states that refuse to link student achievement to individual teacher evaluations.
Only the nation’s two largest teachers unions – the NEA and AFT – are still bucking the trend and militantly defending the status quo, despite the growing body of evidence that our current system does not work very well for our students.
But the unions are still a very powerful force in the Democratic Party, and they’re using their influence to prevent Democratic lawmakers throughout the nation from joining forces with Obama and his education allies.
In Wisconsin, for instance, bills were recently introduced in the both chambers of the state legislature to drop the ban on linking student achievement to teacher evaluations. Both bills would simply allow local school boards to determine their own policies on the matter.
But the bills are being bottled up, without discussion or debate, by the Democratic majorities in both chambers, according to “thenorthwestern.com.”
Apparently some Democrats are torn between their president’s call for desperately needed reform, and the millions of campaign dollars they stand to gain or lose from the teachers unions. In some quarters, like the Wisconsin state legislature, the dollars are apparently trumping the president.
So much for change we can all believe in.