High Class, Class Is In, A Lack of Class?

A lot of eduwatchers had been wondering how new New York Governor Elliot Spitzer was going to navigate the various shoals and currents facing him on the education issue. If this speech he gave Tuesday (NYT story here) is any indication, the answer is creatively and robustly.* There is a lot of stuff in here that seems to signal that Sptizer is willing to use his substantial political capital to move the ball on schools in New York. Read the whole thing but it’s hard to miss the emphasis on accountability, more charter schools, more rational financing, and a clear signal on human capital around using data to drive tenure decisions. Bloomberg – Klein want to do that, too, it’s raised a big ruckus in Gotham, so Spitzer’s mention matters…

Also, at the bottom of the speech, the exclamation point on this Boston business, which has engendered some strong words…

*I remain convinced that the best thing that could happen for Democrats on education is winning a bunch of key governorships like NY, MA, CO, OH, and MD. It’s going to force a healthy seriousness on the issue at the state level since owning the problems is different than merely being oppositional.

Update: Don’t miss this Kevin Carey post on the same.

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