"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
There’s nothing magical about bargaining in the sunshine. We do it in Florida, and it doesn’t make the results better on average. There are some ways in which bargaining in open sessions make it more difficult to settle hard issues.
In which Rotherham strikes out.
1) There is no comparison between the movie and the Chicago strike. Do I really have to explain the difference? The movie is disingenuous enough but to compare it Chicago is adding insult to injury.
2) Negotiations are done privately to avoid any more extremism and grandstanding than there already is by all sides.
3) In Douglas County, talks in public FAILED. So much for your dear theory. And, in DougCo, the board got taken-over by Tea Party hacks and Christianists who applied their profound ignorance and the negotiating skills of Vlad the Impaler to what was already a great school system. Now, they are losing quality teachers. Nothing good happens when the American Taliban™ run the schools.
Sorry Andrew, but this time it’s strike three and you’re out.
Sherman –
I agree it’s not somehow axiomatically better, which is why I used the DougCo example and pointed out that it’s still messy. But, how is it *worse?* Isn’t “settle hard issues” code for ‘subvert the public interest one way or another to get a deal done’ (and that’s a problem with labor and management)? And of course in ‘if a tree falls’ department you need people to show up, which doesn’t always happen even in places it’s open.
Jeffery – as always, thanks for the close textual reading, keep up the good work!
No, “settle hard issues” is not synonymous with “subvert the public interest one way or another to get a deal done.” Often negotiating in public IS grandstanding, which isn’t exactly serving the public interest.
I think that’s right, Sherman, about grandstanding as a potential risk but isn’t the basic choice between two bad behaviors here the threat of grandstanding in public or of outrageous requests in private? I’ll take the former only because at least in public there is a chance for some accountability for it.
Well Andrew, just consider me a loyal reader if sometimes in opposition. I do appreciate you read the comments, not all bloggers bother.
Thanks!