In my junior year of high school, I was caught red handed not signed up for a Fall sports team (we were required to participate in one every season). I was guilty, had no defense, was unceremoniously marched over to the cross-country team and “volunteered”. For the record, this was and remains the harshest punishment ever exacted upon my person.

I showed up every day and did only that which was required, nothing more (sometimes less).

When we competed in a race, though I usually came in last, (I thought) I crossed each finish line in style, sprinting with my last reserves of energy. But it was all for show. Those who stuck around to actually see me finish saw only this explosion of effort and quite rightly wondered why I had not doled it out over the entire course.

It was a sad display of ego and false enthusiasm.

And I am reminded almost daily of this as states rush education legislation through their political machines. One by one, Illinois, Massachusetts, Kentucky, Delaware, Tennessee and their neighbors sprint across the finish line just in time for their ‘Race to the Top’ applications to have a little more content to accompany their creative writing.

What if they had been working on these education efforts over time, with focus and determination? What if they had trained a little harder in order to move beyond the superficial? What if they had made changes to their schools just because it was necessary and right, rather than lucrative?

I was never going to be a cross-country runner, and my finish line sprints proved that. Will the same be true of states in the ‘Race to the Top’?

Tomorrow, on his continuing education tour, Education Secretary Arne Duncan will be joined in Philadelphia by two gentlemen who because of their obvious differences on many levels are called the Odd Couple of education.  I applaud strange bedfellows - when they make things happen for kids. With this one, I’m not so sure.

The first real Odd Couples of education led some of the nation’s most fundamental shifts in education, shifts that had once been considered radical.  Looking back through the past sixteen years, it’s clear that while education reform has changed dramatically, broad, mainstream support for bold changes in education existed then, just as they do now.  It was just much less hip to say so.

Then, policymakers who led the fight for charter schools, merit pay (as it was called in those days), vouchers and the like were accused of being part of the vast right wing conspiracy and generally anti-public education, despite the fact that such nomenclature didn’t fit then, just as it does not now. CER’s first work celebrated legislators like Pennsylvania Democrat Dwight Evans, who joined hands with Republican Tom Ridge to pass that state’s charter bill.  Miami Urban League head T. Willard Fair teamed up with Governor Jeb Bush to bring vouchers to Florida, following in the steps of Representative Polly Williams, a former Black Panther, in league with conservative Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson.

These were the first, real Odd Couples of the modern education reform movement.  They were bold, tenacious, and courageous to cross party lines, incur the wrath of unions together and suffer all sorts of education establishment slurs.

More “Gingrich and Sharpton – An Odd Couple for Education, But Not the First”

A challenge to the NAACP, African-American parents and all Americans…

To rousing applause, the president gave what was perhaps his best education speech to date last night, making it clear that “government programs alone…” won’t solve our problems, instead asking this community in particular to adopt  “a new mind set”, one that doesn’t tolerate failure.

“No excuses,” the president demanded to this audience. “No excuses.”

He has our thanks and our blessing for adopting the Reform Battle Cry.

“No Excuses” he said to the organization that, despite it’s name, has in reality done little in the last 20 years to support the kinds of real reforms that can indeed create a no excuses culture for poor children, children of color, all children in need.

And so the president’s impassioned and bold speech is particularly music to the ears of reformers of all stripes.

“I hope you don’t mind. I want to go on a little detour here about education (to rousing applause). In the 21st century when so many jobs will require a bachelors degree or more… a world class education is a prerequisite for success. You know what I’m taking about. There’s a reason the story of the civil rights movement was written in our schools.

“There is no stronger weapon against inequality and no better path to opportunity than an education that can unlock a child’s God given potential.

“Yet more than half a century after Brown v. Board of Education, the dream of a world class education is still being deferred…” (i.e. Achievement gap, dropouts, corridors of shame…)

“The state of our schools… is an American problem. Because if black and brown children cannot compete, America cannot compete.

“And let me say this, if Al Sharpton, Mike Bloomberg and Newt Gingrich can agree we have to solve the education problem, then that’s something all of America can agree we can solve.

“Those guys came into my office… and I kept on doing a double take. So that’s a sign of progress and a sign of the urgency of the education problem. All of us can agree that we have to offer every child in this country - every child - the best education the world has to offer… and all of us in government have to do our part by not only offering more resources, but by demanding more reform…”

Perhaps the evening’s least applause came when the President questioned the very conventional wisdom that has guided the thinking of the NAACP and other traditional civil rights groups: “We have to get past this old fashioned paradigm that somehow it’s just money,” he said to no applause.  “We have to get past the [idea] that it’s just reform, but no money,” he said as the applause picked up.

And President Obama acknowledged the flaws in some other conventional wisdom thinking, like, for example, not all early education programs are great and that parents should hold their children accountable for the highest of expectations, not just expect the schools and the government to do their jobs. “You can’t just contract out parenting…”

“We’ve got to say to our children, yes, if you’re African American, the odds of growing up amid crime and gangs are higher. Yes, if you live in a poor neighborhood, you will face challenges that someone in a wealthy suburb does not have to face. That’s not a reason to get bad grades, that’s not a reason to cut class, that’s not a reason to give up on your education and drop out of school. No one has written your destiny for you. Your destiny is in your hands - and don’t you forget that.

“You get that education. All those hardships will just make you stronger, better able to compete. Yes… we… can.”

A must listen. A must read. Thank you, Mr. President.

(Part II of The New No Excuses President will look at how Obama’s words fit a man who would normally endorse the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program…)

Dear Dennis,

You have been working overtime to ensure a permanent end to the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program, a program offering 1,700 children in Washington, DC a chance to escape their failing schools and receive a world-class education. Your staff has visited Congress, written letters and threatened future political support. You have ignored the tangible success of the program. Why? How do the choices of 1,700 students undermine what education is supposed to do for kids in the U.S.?

Ed Reform

Dear Dennis,

Have you ever thought that by building up the profession of teaching you would be building up your individual members as well? You are vehemently opposed to performance pay for teachers based on student performance or evaluation and recently argued against President Obama’s proposal that the government fund a merit pay program, suggesting instead that the money be tied to professional development and focused on “the practice of teaching”.  Wouldn’t a student achievement-based evaluation be an ideal way to reward “the practice of teaching”, as the successful education of a student is exactly that? Why don’t you focus on treating teachers well, as professionals, rather than fighting for systems that will only lead to more failure - of your members, of their students - in the end?

Ed Reformer