Author of books The Homework Myth and What Does It Mean to be Well Educated? (mandatory reads for any educator)has a post on The Nation discusses how "progressives are in short supply on the president-elect's list of cabinet nominees."
From Alfie Kohn article, Beware School Reformers and decoding what is meant by serious education reform:
To decode how that last word is being used here, recall its meaning in the context of welfare (under Clinton) or environmental laws (under Reagan and Bush). For Republicans education "reform" typically includes support for vouchers and other forms of privatization. But groups with names like Democrats for Education Reform--along with many mainstream publications--are disconcertingly allied with conservatives in just about every other respect
Kohn favors Linda-Darling Hammond, who has written a great deal about teacher training and school reform and is currently leading the education working group for the Obama transition team. She's also featured in the list we linked in this post on Nov. 7th.
We have to agree also with Alfie, respect of websites where you can promote an Education secretary candidate. The only petition, right now I know, is one for [http://www.petitiononline.com/DHammond/petition.html], if you know of some other place, please leave it in comments.
Reformers want that, “reform” - they just don’t want change. We don't care who's appointed for that position, but certainly we would prefer an educator, in front of a corporate manager, even when this person knows very much about education industry.
Let's allow an educator to run and change the Education Department.
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