It certainly would be a mistake to privilege educational issues and the reauthorization of NCLB in the political contention that is defining the run up to the new Super Tuesday, but it would also be an error to discount altogether their role.*
On the campaign trail last week in Arizona, Bill Clinton delivered a speech which characterized NCLB as a “train wreck.” “No Child Left Behind was supported by George Bush and Senator Ted Kennedy and everybody in between,” Clinton said. “Why? Because they didn’t talk to enough teachers before they did that.”
Obama supporter Joe Williams of Democrats for Education Reform writes here why he thinks maintaining NCLB in its current form is an “inherently Democratic” position. And self-appointed NCLB guardian Charles Barrone goes postal on Bill Clinton.
Maybe there is something more to the NCLB sub-text of the Kennedy endorsement of Obama over Clinton than some thought.
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* For those who somehow managed to miss the last six months of the presidential campaign, the AFT, our national union, endorsed Hillary Clinton, as we have previously noted here — in significant part because of her stance on educational issues.
9 Comments:
1 charlieb
· Feb 2, 2008 at 4:46 pm
Hey - It’s Barone (one “r”). I thought I was pretty factual, rather than “postal”. But let me know if there’s anything I wrote that you dispute.
Thanks.
— Charlie
2 Sherman Dorn: Bill Clinton's Ego, redux
· Feb 2, 2008 at 10:32 pm
[...] think Leo Casey is wrong about the politics of Bill Clinton’s slamming Ted Kennedy. Since I agree with Leo on a [...]
3 joe w
· Feb 2, 2008 at 11:02 pm
Leo, on the link you provided to my post, I didn’t say anyting about “keeping NCLB in its current form.” As you know, NCLB is a mirage in its current form. No one suffers any consequences when kids don’t learn but the kids. President Bush has failed to both fund and enforce the law, essentially allowing school districts to get away with murder. I can only hope that a Democratic president will emerge someday who has the balls to cut through all the bogus whining and focus on meeting the needs of hard-working families. NCLB needs to be even stronger than its current form.
PS - I found your use of the word “postal” in describing Charlie Barone’s comments to be an insult to the dedicated dues-paying members of the American Postal Workers Union.
4 Sunday links. « PREA Prez
· Feb 3, 2008 at 1:56 pm
[...] Jeez, Leo. You were wrong. Move on and let it go. Maybe there is something more to the NCLB sub-text of the Kennedy endorsement of Obama over Clinton than some thought. Edwize [...]
5 Swift & Change Able - Bill Clinton: Still Digging
· Feb 3, 2008 at 2:43 pm
[...] workers. Where’s the solidarity? And, last but not least, Joe Williams weighs in. Click: here. Update #2: The Nation: here. 788 words by bigswifty , 26 views • Send [...]
6 jd2718
· Feb 3, 2008 at 3:11 pm
Leo,
all Fall you supported fixing then reauthorizing NCLB.
all Fall Hillary Rodham Clinton supported fixing then reauthorizing NCLB.
all Fall Barack Obama supported fixing then reauthorizing NCLB.
Recent convenient remarks on the campaign trail aside, was there any difference?
Is there any now?
Would you join me in proposing to the AFT that we change our position to dump NCLB, instead of working “to get it right”?
Jonathan
7 Leo Casey
· Feb 4, 2008 at 6:52 pm
I am touched by the concern for postal workers by folks who do not ordinarily worry about workers or unions.
Jonathan, the point the UFT has always made about NCLB is that since it is the vehicle for the delivery of federal funds to education, one would not simply repeal it, and give up federal funds to education — which in the case of NYC public schools is over 10% of all school funding.
8 NCLB: Act II
· Feb 5, 2008 at 9:05 am
[...] Leo Casey suggests that Clinton’s statement validates his theory that Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., traded his endorsement for the NCLB vote of Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. But Sherman Dorn sees nothing other than bare-bones politics: “I don’t think Bill Clinton gives a hoot about NCLB right now, but if he can use it to smear Kennedy and undermine that endorsement, he will.” [...]
9 AFT NCLBlog
· Mar 3, 2008 at 12:36 pm
[...] opposes it, when the public massively opposes it, when even your candidate’s spouse calls it “a train wreck’,” why wasn’t the AFT on [...]
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