Education Policy

Richard Kahlenberg writing in the American Prospect asks factions of the Left that have been fighting for 40 years to find common ground on education policy. His conclusion:

Rather than listening to Brooks (who oddly finds himself advocating for Al Sharpton over James Coleman), Obama should keep two critical ideas in his head at once, as Shanker did. Teacher unions need to go along with much needed reforms of the schools to rid the system of bad teachers and connect low-income students with the very best educators. And self-styled civil-rights activists like Sharpton need to acknowledge that poverty -- not unions -- is the biggest impediment to low-income and minority achievement. A repeat of the civil-rights/teacher-union wars of the 1960s will only help the right wing and will do nothing to advance the cause of poor and minority kids.

This debate is reflective of the larger intra-left fight over how to promote equality in today's economy and political environment. For a good overview of the arguments on both sides, there's CLASP's audio conference with ES's Tony Carnevale, EPI's Jared Bernstein, and Laura Dresser from COWS.