March of the pundits, part 2

A new stock figure is abroad in the land of edu-reform: the middle class voter

The political strategy of George Miller and Buck McKeon, respectively the chairman and top Republican on the House Education and Labor Committee, has now come into focus: to get an NCLB reauthorization bill through Congress, appease the suburbs and those who represent them. This approach is smart and savvy and sometimes leads to good policies--but may also leave lots of kids behind.

We have this on the authority of Mike Petrilli who, I gather, helped create NCLB in the first place, when he worked at the DOE.

Petrilli is knowledgeable on the subject of the suburban parent:

...in the suburbs, bad news about local schools captures the quick attention of politicians (and residents worried about their property values). These districts report to powerful parents who have the money to move to another town or send their children to private schools.

My question: who is living on another planet, Mike Petrilli or me?

I ask, because Mike and I are not enjoying a shared reality.

First things first.

I am a suburban parent. Mike and I see eye to eye on that.

Beyond this, I have no idea what he's talking about.

In the world according to Mike Petrilli, I am apparently the person, or, rather, the person category, who will be responsible for the death of NCLB should such occur.

Which it probably will, because I am powerful and I have to be appeased. Everyone knows this.

OK, fine. Fine. I will just add that, one of these days, I would actually like to meet a powerful suburban parent who has to be appeased. Better yet, I would like to be one. I would like to stop having the power to kill NCLB, a law I support, and start having the power to compel my school district to teach my child math -- and, while they're at it, to teach our black & Hispanic kids algebra in the 8th grade, a subject I have spent the past two years raising publicly with district administrators and board members to no avail.

What is the point of being powerful and appease-worthy if you can't get what you do want, and can get what you do not want?

I ask you.

If you want to hear Mike Petrilli and Frederick Hess's chucklefest on the subject of NCLB and the middle class voter, you can do so here. Click on "To the University of Harvard! - September 6, 2007"

I've always admired both men, but after hearing this tape I'm not going to be able to think of them in quite the same way again.

march of the pundits, part 1
speaking of pundits
march of the pundits, part 2
how to change the system
parents need a union
Independent George on the pundits and their ways
one is a nutjob, twenty five are powerful
first person
#marchofthepundits