Eduwonk’s otherwise smart and honorable leader Andy Rotherham told a major charter group recently - in terms of a president Obama - “if education is your issue you have nothing to worry about.”

Really?

Just a few days ago, Democrats for Education Reform blogger Whitney Tilson, also a smart, honorable (albeit partisan ☺) guy, had this to say about the candidates on education:

“… but I give him credit in one area: what he said about education, in which he hit all the right buttons: education as the main civil rights issue today, the alarming number of failing schools, the need to shake up awful bureaucracies, empowering parents with choice, including charter schools, etc.”

Fearless Whitney continues:

“This led one of my friends to write: ‘This decision is going to be tough…. VERY tough for us single issue voters. As powerful as an Obama candidacy is, and as much as I disagree with our misguided involvement in Iraq, there just simply is no contest between McCain and Obama on education reform. Did you hear him tonight? McCain gets it. I am sad to say that I STILL don’t know if Obama does.’”

I won’t address any other aspect of this campaign, but on this issue, Whitney’s friend is on to something. Want to know why? Click here to read our analysis of the presidential candidates. Our single-issue focus necessitated this in depth look.

(from CER’s 2008 Education Reform Voter’s BLOG)

In response to our Candidate Scorecard released earlier this week to assess the degree to which candidates for the U.S. Senate support education reform, we have received a landslide of commentary from across the great state of Colorado suggesting that we were too hard on Bob Schaffer. Citing his strong record as a school choice advocate, the role he played in the formation of Colorado’s original charter school law, and the fact that “all five of his children have been educated in charter schools,” many have gone so far as to demand that we revise our scoring in his case and “correct your mistake in a public forum.” First, a quick overview of the facts:

More “Our take on Bob Schaffer”

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Learning About Learning
Washington Post, D.C., October 28, 2008
If neuroscientists can pinpoint which parts of the brain are activated when a reader puzzles over an unknown word, they may eventually help teachers tailor reading instruction for individuals.

Evidence Shows Vouchers Not Working
Greenville News, SC, October 28, 2008
In Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Cleveland, Ohio, home of the nation’s longest-running voucher experiments, vouchers have accomplished neither of the objectives supporters hoped they would.

Unions Battle for Democrats in Swing States
Education Week, MD, October 27, 2008
Teachers’ unions around the country have shifted into high gear in the countdown to the presidential election next week, and nowhere is the fervor more evident than in the battleground states.

Lawsuits to Close Failing Charter Schools to Continue
Columbus Dispatch, OH, October 28, 2008
Interim Attorney General Nancy H. Rogers will continue her predecessor’s effort of trying to shut down poor-performing charter schools under Ohio’s charitable trust law.

Charter School Halts Its Expansion Plans
Chicago Daily Herald, IL, October 28, 2008
The Pingree Grove school originally was slated to expand this year, but declining enrollment has put those plans on hold, District 300 officials said Monday.

Schools Can’t Save Anymore? Don’t Drink School Officials’ Cool-Aid
TCPalm, FL, October 28, 2008
In addition to leaner administrative staffs, districts can take two proactive approaches that actually enrich education: promoting more online learning and facilitating more charter schools.

Ten Years Later, Joshua Academy Counted As A Blessing
Henderson Gleaner, KY, October 27, 2008
Joshua Academy was the result. First an independent school, and then a charter school beginning in 2004, Joshua Academy has 220 pupils in preschool through fifth grade.

Cobb Board Approves Kennesaw School’s 1-Year Charter
Atlanta Journal Constitution, GA, October 27, 2008
Kennesaw Charter School has another year to prove any problems it may have had are in the past. School officials originally wanted a new five-year charter for the school, which opened in 2003. But when that plan fell short of getting the Cobb school board’s approval, a one-year charter request was submitted.

They’re Taking Care of Business
Rocky Mountain News, CO, October 28, 2008
The Denver Public Schools charter opened its doors near downtown in August with the promise that the curriculum will focus on building skills that students need to be successful at work, whether they decide they want to be entrepreneurs, academics or employees.

Revising Patrick’s Education Agenda
Boston Globe, MA, October 28, 2008
Among the likely casualties of the financial storm are several proposals included in the Readiness Project, Patrick’s action agenda for education.

GPS Supports New All-Girls Charter School
The Chattanoogan, TN, October 27, 2008
After last year’s success at raising $62,000 for a girls’ school in Pakistan, the GPS Robin Hood committee this year has turned its sights to a school closer to home, the new all-girls charter school, Chattanooga Girls’ Leadership Academy.

Embracing Online Learning’s Promise
East Valley Tribune, AZ, October 27, 2008
These Arizona students and thousands like them around the state are pioneers in the 21st century education phenomenon known as K-12 online learning.

Time for a Radical Revolution in Education
Victorville Daily Press, CA, October 27, 2008
While we continue to be strong advocates for a school voucher system, we see no sign that vouchers will come to California anytime soon. In the meantime, we urge the public to, first, reject Measure V. Then we all must pressure the Victor Valley Union High School District leadership to create a series of new charter schools, including a new charter high school for Adelanto.

Monday, October 27, 2008

Approval of New Charter Schools Raises Some Concerns
Tallahassee Democrat, FL, October 26, 2008
At least one more charter school will open its doors next year, offering parents yet another alternative for their child’s education. But while some parents are supportive of Leon County’s charter schools, others express some caution.

Catholic Schools Offer Another Choice
Wall Street Journal, October 27, 2008
Your editorial "Charter Success in L.A" (Oct. 14) overlooks the contributions of at least 40 Archdiocesan Catholic schools located within that same area.

Key to Stemming High-School Dropouts: Parents
Christian Science Monitor, MA, October 27, 2008
If America is going to stem the dropout crisis, low-performing schools will have to do a better job of reaching out to parents. That’s the conclusion of a new report that found that, among parents with students in low-performing high schools, fewer than half said the schools did a fairly good job communicating about their child’s academic progress.

New Horizons in High School Classrooms
New York Times, NY, October 27, 2008
While some high schools have long offered a smorgasbord of electives, many began cutting back in the late 1970s and ’80s under a back-to-basics movement. They eliminated even more after the No Child Left Behind law in 2001…

We Don’t Need Another War on Poverty
City Journal, NY, Autumn 2008
The mayors, joined by many newspaper editorial pages, have echoed Obama in calling for vast new federal spending on cities. All of this has helped rejuvenate the old argument that America’s urban areas are victims of Washington’s neglect and that it’s up to the rest of the country…

Grade Change
Boston Globe, MA, October 26, 2008
The documentary’s argument is quite common, verging on a truism. You hear it in Rotary speeches and see it on cable news: Beware, the rising Third World powers are going to eat our lunch. This assumption shapes the American educational debate and feeds popular views (and fears) about our country’s place in the world.

Palin Promises Choice for Disabled Students
New York Times, NY, October 25, 2008
In her first policy speech of the presidential campaign, Gov. Sarah Palin vowed Friday that a McCain administration would allow all special-needs students the choice of attending private schools at public expense, a controversial and potentially costly proposal likely to be welcomed by many parents and bitterly opposed by many school districts.

Baptism by Fire Vulcanized Rhee, ‘Brat Pack’ Peers
Washington Post, D.C., October 27, 2008
To understand D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee and the educational insurgency she is part of, you have to know what happened when she taught at Baltimore’s Harlem Park Elementary School in the early 1990s.

High-Powered Team to Help City’s High School Teachers and Principals
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, PA, October 27, 2008
A new team of nationally known educators will try to help the city’s high school teachers and principals get better at their jobs over the next five years — and the Pittsburgh Public Schools is getting the advice for free.

Charter School Snagged By Legislation
Knoxville News Sentinel, TN, October 27, 2008
An anticipated charter school that would have served students who don’t fit into mainstream high school likely will not open this winter because of barriers that include stringent state legislation that blocks students from receiving anything other than a diploma from a charter program.

Some Voters Doubt New State School Board’s Value
Washington Post, D.C., October 25, 2008
Last year, the board was stripped of the day-to-day management of public schools when the D.C. Council agreed to give Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) authority over all school curriculum, operations, personnel and facilities.

Education Measure Has Some Foes
Tulsa World, OK, October 27, 2008
Several groups are lining up to oppose an Oklahoma Education Association initiative to increase per-pupil spending to the regional average. Helping Oklahoma Public Education submitted 238,000 signatures Monday to the Oklahoma Secretary of State to get State Question 744 on the ballot in 2010.

Moving Forward With Charter Schools in Nevada
Las Vegas Review - Journal, NV, October 26, 2008
The final presidential debate revealed both candidates agreeing on something: charter schools as a solution for public education in America. Nationally, more than 4,000 charter schools are fostering competition and providing public school choice to families.

Urban School Success Depends on Adults Getting Along
Providence Journal, RI, October 26, 2008
Payne’s central message is right. Embattled adults constantly undermine improvement in American schools. They’re like the basketball game that erupts into a brawl, leaving the ball to roll off the court.

UD, Its College Academy Lauded For Impact on Learning
Dayton Daily News, OH, October 25, 2008
The University of Dayton and the Dayton Early College Academy were recognized Friday, Oct. 24, as an exemplary partnership between a university and an urban school district that has had a significant impact on teaching and learning.

For-Profit School Helps Metro Students Catch Up
The Tennessean, TN, October 26, 2008
For the first time, students at risk of quitting school have the option to attend the Ombudsman program, an academic-based alternative school with sites throughout Davidson County. In May, the school board approved a $2.5 million, five-year contract with Nashville-based Educational Services of America, the for-profit founder of the program.

Politics is Harming Education in Ohio
Columbus Dispatch, OH, October 25, 2008
Nowhere is the politicization of school accountability more obvious than in the Buckeye State. Exhibit No. 1 is the Ohio attorney general’s legal actions against troubled charter schools, seeking their closure for allegedly violating the state’s charitable trust laws.

Private Schools Get State Funds to Target Dropouts
San Antonio Express, TX, October 27, 2008
When bipartisan lawmakers passed a bill last legislative season to address the number of Texas high school dropouts, one of the programs, a $6 million investment in a pilot plan aimed at bringing students under 25 back to school to earn diplomas, stirred controversy statewide.

A Plan to Cut the High School Dropout Rate
New York Times, NY, October 26, 2008
Last week, Gov. Jon S. Corzine and state officials announced a yearlong, multiagency initiative to boost the state’s graduation rates. Called the New Jersey High School Graduation Campaign…

Financial Oversight of Oregon’s Charter Schools Remains Spotty
The Oregonian, OR, October 26, 2008
An investigation by the North Clackamas School District has raised questions about accounting and financial practices at a group of public charter schools.

Charter School Enrollment Could Jump Significantly
KUTV, UT, October 25, 2008
Enrollment in the state’s charter schools could increase nearly 50 percent by the 2010-11 school year if the state Board of Education approves several new schools and agrees to expand others.

Virtual Charter Schools’ Success Gets Applause
Greenville News, SC, October 25, 2008
From a laptop computer inside a walk-in closet at his home off North Pleasantburg Drive, Elvis Alivodaj is transmitting mathematical knowledge to middle school students across South Carolina.

$7-billion Measure Q Would Fund School Construction and Modernization
Los Angeles Times, CA, October 27, 2008
The case for $7-billion Measure Q, the largest local school bond in state history, goes something like this: Now that the school district has built dozens of new campuses, it needs and deserves more dollars to fix up the old ones.

Basing Teacher Pay on Merit Ridiculous
Statesman Journal, OR, October 27, 2008
Bill Sizemore, what are you thinking? So all teachers should be paid on the classroom and student performance? Should law enforcement officers be paid on how many criminals they apprehend? Receive a pay cut for the ones that got away?

Next President Faces Decisions On Education
Daily Comet, LA, October 26, 2008
Among campaign promises, Barack Obama’s pledges to improve early-childhood education to prepare kids for kindergarten. John McCain is an advocate of instituting school choice so parents can freely pull their children from low-performing schools.

Parents Deserve Diverse Opportunities
Richmond Times Dispatch, VA, October 26, 2008
A funny thing happened on the way to the election. Answering the last question during the last debate, candidates John McCain and Barack Obama agreed with each other. The issue was charter schools.

Nixon, Hulshof Fight To Be Next Governor
News-Leader, MO, October 26, 2008
Hulshof favors vouchers and school choice programs where traditional public schools have to compete for students (and tax dollars) with charter schools and private institutions.

McCrory, Perdue Differ on Charter Schools
Charlotte Observer, NC, October 25, 2008
The law allowing 100 charter schools in North Carolina won legislative approval more than 10 years ago in a wave of bipartisanship. But the prospect of allowing more of them has the Republican and Democratic candidates for governor occupying opposite corners.

While the media are paying attention to the now infamous presidential battleground state of Ohio, maybe they can spend a few minutes on the continued and outrageous opposition of that state’s Governor to charter schools, an issue that our POTUS candidates allegedly agree on (though we have some doubts).

Governor Ted Strickland fought hard two years ago to abolish all school choices from the state’s budget. He was overwhelmingly defeated by tens of thousands of people across the state rallying to retain the precious right to direct their own children’s education. Strickland hid behind what he considered gross failures among choice and charter schools - meanwhile, the legislature had already enacted legislation that guaranteed charter school closures when those schools failed to meet state targets three years in a row. Such a standard has never been in place for regular public schools, nor is NCLB working in that state to close chronically failing schools.

But how does Governor Strickland’s attack of charters again this week square with the Obama campaign?

More “Battleground”