Matthew Yglesias » Education in the Budget Proposal

Mar 16th, 2009 at 10:55 am

Education in the Budget Proposal

The budget is not just a budget, it’s also an outline for forward-looking policy in a broad variety of areas including education. CAP’s Associate Director for Education Policy, Melissa Lazarin, made a video explaining what the budget means for that area:

Basically, good things. In my view, one of the most under-commented-on aspects of Obama’s first two months in office is that the groundwork has been laid for the federal government to be playing a much larger role in education policy than has customarily been the case. Trends have been building in that direction, slowly, since the 1960s and the pace of change increased with the No Child Left Behind bill, but the stimulus and Obama’s proposals imply another big leap in that direction.

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Filed under: Budget, education,

13 Responses to “Education in the Budget Proposal”

JT Says:
March 16th, 2009 at 11:15 am
No Child… is certainly a sterling recommendation for yet greater Federal control of public education.
God knows the states and localities all agree!
But thanks for giving us yet more evidence that the real purpose of Stimulator is as cover for the Left’s social engineering projects.
wiley Says:
March 16th, 2009 at 11:44 am
Yes JT. The children will be making robots to replace their planets.
wiley Says:
March 16th, 2009 at 11:45 am
parents. Whoo it’s early.
kafka Says:
March 16th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
“…the groundwork has been laid for the federal government to be playing a much larger role in education policy than has customarily been the case. Trends have been building in that direction, slowly, since the 1960s and the pace of change increased with the No Child Left Behind bill…”

And any fool can see how much better our schools are since the 1960s….
SLC Says:
March 16th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
Re JT

Indeed, education should be left entirely to fucktard local officials like Don McElroy.

http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2009/03/don_mcelroy_gives_away_the_gam.php
Don Williams Says:
March 16th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
From a PR viewpoint, it’s kinda unfortunate that Melissa has a resemblance to that OctoMom.

Taxpayers who have seen their life savings lose 50 percent of their value in the past year are not too happy with the public administration that creates an Octomom: a woman with little income –and with six kids already– hitting the taxpayers up to pay for $1 Million + in medical care for 8 infants born from a deeply irresponsible experiment in fertility. Who will end up paying for the rearing and education of those 8 infants is left as an exercise for the reader.
wiley Says:
March 16th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
The Octomom is a freak, and not a measure of any public administration. She’s the variable that gets thrown out because she’s off the charts. Worldwide, the number of women who want to have a litter might be counted on one hand.
Andrew Says:
March 16th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
Generally intelligent, progressive policy wonks are getting ROLLED on education these days. Crony capitalism is in trouble on many fronts but their last golden frontier is education. Why can’t I be hearing this real story from CAP??

Not every charter school is a bad thing, but the big push here is crony capitalism pure and simple. If people like me, or Matt Yglesias or Barack Obama would NEVER send their children to a KIPP academy, then who is KIPP the “right” school for?

Why does anyone think “Investors” will operate better schools than “Educators” can? They will select their students, devise the tests, teach to them, and claim success. Prestigious private schools and exclusive suburbs will sail on unaffected.

Why does anyone think thousands of charter schools will, in the aggregate, be any more manageable or accountable than existing public systems? There will be more dark corrupt corners, duplication of effort, and plenty of educational sacrifice zones populated by children whose families failed to maneuver them into the better schools. Its the poverty, stupid.

Merit Pay: Anyone who has ever spent time in an excellent school knows how important teamwork is. Sadly, there are teachers who knock and sabotage their colleagues to puff up their own status. They scheme to get the “best” kids into their class year after year. Some simply cheat. Merit pay will enable and motivate these kinds of teacher more than the ones you want. Meanwhile, excellent teachers do their best, as long as they can afford to stay in the job and not get demoralized by how tools and ass-kissers get all the rewards and positive attention.

Please Please Please. Unless you think the last people we need to be hearing from are dedicated educators and people with a clear vision of the role of education in a democratic society, read these blogs:

Schools Matter

Perimeter Primate

They are doing a better a better job than I can.
tft Says:
March 16th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
Exactly, Andrew.

Don’t forget The Frustrated Teacher…
Political Blog Says:
March 25th, 2009 at 2:20 am
Hey very nice blog!! Man .. Beautiful .. Amazing .. I will bookmark your blog and take the feeds also…
Ex Back Says:
April 9th, 2009 at 12:05 am
I noticed that this is not the first time you write about the topic. Why have you decided to touch it again?
ethinfelt Says:
April 10th, 2009 at 9:00 pm
FANTASTIC!
How to Get Six Pack Fast Says:
April 15th, 2009 at 10:15 am
The style of writing is very familiar . Have you written guest posts for other bloggers?

Matt Yglesias

Education in the Budget Proposal

13 Responses to “Education in the Budget Proposal”

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