Can’t say he didn’t go out in consistent style: Praising class size reduction with no attention to the trade-offs, ripping NCLB, and putting forth odd ideas (in this case holding politicians accountable for not addressing poverty…great idea that I’m all for, but I’m pretty sure there is a mechanism for doing that, it’s called elections).
I’ll use this occasion to float my old idea: Rather than have an education columnist, why not use the space to publish pieces by people in the education world from teachers, students, and parents to policymakers, experts, and politicians. Someone would have to sift through the submissions, someone else make the final call, someone else edit, and I’m sure the unusable would far outweigh the usable. Yet I’m equally sure that there would be some real gems buried in the submissions that each week would engage, provoke, and spark good conversations.