"Least influential of education's most influential information sources."
-- Education Week Research Center
"full of very lively short items and is always on top of the news...He gets extra points for skewering my high school rating system"
-- Jay Mathews, The Washington Post
"a daily dose of information from the education policy world, blended with a shot of attitude and a dash of humor"
-- Education Week
"unexpectedly entertaining"..."tackle[s] a potentially mindfogging subject with cutting clarity... they're reading those mushy, brain-numbing education stories so you don't have to!"
-- Mickey Kaus
"a very smart blog... this is the site to read"
-- Ryan Lizza
"everyone who's anyone reads Eduwonk"
-- Richard Colvin
"designed to cut through the fog and direct specialists and non-specialists alike to the center of the liveliest and most politically relevant debates on the future of our schools"
-- The New Dem Daily
"peppered with smart and witty comments on the education news of the day"
-- Education Gadfly
"don't hate Eduwonk cuz it's so good"
-- Alexander Russo, This Week In Education
"the morning's first stop for education bomb-throwers everywhere"
-- Mike Antonucci, Intercepts
"…the big dog on the ed policy blog-ck…"
-- Michele McLaughlin
"I check Eduwonk several times a day, especially since I cut back on caffeine"
-- Joe Williams
"...one of the few bloggers who isn't completely nuts"
-- Mike Petrilli, Thomas B. Fordham Foundation
"I have just three 'go to' websites: The Texas Legislature, Texas Longhorn sports, and Eduwonk"
-- Sandy Kress
"penetrating analysis in a lively style on a wide range of issues"
-- Walt Gardner
"Fabulous"
-- Education Week's Alyson Klein
"thugs"
-- Susan Ohanian
Smart List: 60 People Shaping the Future of K-12 Education
Does Eduwonk = MoveOn?
I get the politics here. The unions are hoping that minor concessions will be heralded as major breakthroughs, so that they can ease the pressure the right and center are putting on them (particularly in hot zones like DC).
But what I do think is a propos about this equation is that the radical center (epitomized by Eduwonk) is contenting itself with mere sunshine, just as MoveOn (the left in the health care debate) is. That is, both Eduwonk and MoveOn are showing just how “shameful” the compromises that the self-styled reformers are making — but not showing how they are supposed to avoid making these compromises to make progress.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that. The question remains, so what? Deflating the Bobb balloon is fine — but it would be better, and much more practical, if Eduwonk could explain just what Bobb, or the good citizens of Detroit, or Michigan, or anyone else was supposed to do. Would it have been better, after all, if Bobb declared DPS bankrupt and unilaterally imposed an ideal contract? I wouldn’t be against this path in principle, but I’d love to know the potential policy and political costs of taking it. Should a mass movement, a la Steve Barr’s Parent’s Union, mobilize against the contract that Bobb and the union agreed to? Do we have any evidence that such action would work?
If Eduwonk doesn’t address the politics of the thing (and Eduwonk has been great about raising the importance of politics for years), he risks sounding as though it doesn’t know that governing means choosing — and becoming irrelevant to the very leaders trying to enact what he and others have been advocating.