Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican who had assembled a who's who list of education advisers and one of the more detailed education agendas of the GOP presidential candidates, is calling it quits.
Now who in the presidential race will say nice things about No Child Left Behind?
The day Republican Mitt Romney seemed to catch fire by winning the Michigan primary, the National Science Board released a report that resulted in this New York Times headline:
"Global Advances Challenge U.S. Dominance in Science."
Dig deep into the report, released by the governing board of the National Science Foundation, and you'll find that student performance in math and science is both encouraging and depressing, while one big (and not surprising) problem persists: An achievement gap between minority and nonminority students in those two subjects doesn't improve as they progress through school, and in some cases, gets worse.
Today, a day after his win, Romney was in South Carolina talking up how he will make America economically stronger and more competitive.
To his credit, the former Massachusetts governor links education to a strong economy. And, he realizes that math and science education are key to remaining competitive globally. He says he will "emphasize math and science education" if elected president. But his plan suffers for a lack of details (and I went searching on his Web site, to no avail.) Time after time, we read that American students are lagging in math and science, which are considered keys to our economic survival and prosperity, even as other candidates maintain that the arts need a more prominent place in the curriculum. Though Romney has a good idea, how will he emphasize these subjects? Will he offer grants to states? Will he set up national programs for teacher recruitment in these areas? Tell us more.
When you're done reviewing Mitt Romney's victory last night in Michigan from the likes of The Washington Post, Google News, or your favorite blog, you should turn to one more authority on this presidential race: kids.
Education publishing company Scholastic has deployed its "Kid Reporters" to write, photograph, and blog about the 2008 presidential campaign. You can read what they have to say about the Michigan primary here.
You also can read 12-year-old Elizabeth Conway's review of Republican Mike Huckabee's "Huckaburger." (She notes that "a deep-fried pickle—a specialty of Arkansas—may have offset the nutritional value of the vegetables.")
Or, learn what really happens behind closed doors in a caucus, courtesy of three Iowa students. ("Trouble started right away," the story says.)
Also, read about Kid Reporter Mariam El Hasan's conversation with Republican Fred Thompson, on what it means to be a conservative. (Thompson notes that he, too, was once a "little person.")
You should even take note of the real-world experience these kid reporters are getting. And that experience includes getting the cold shoulder from their sources. Take Iowa 4th-grader Sydney Rieckhoff, who is famous enough that her reporting has made CNN, but who was brushed off by former first daughter Chelsea Clinton. Said Sen. Hillary Clinton's daughter, according to the press account: “I’m sorry, I don’t talk to the press and that applies to you, unfortunately. Even though I think you’re cute." Which, of course, catapulted Sydney to even greater fame, including an appearance in the New York Times.
The results from yesterday's Iowa caucuses make one thing very clear: these Midwestern voters are demanding change.
So they gave their votes to Republican Mike Huckabee, a likable, though sometimes gaffe-prone, bass-playing former Arkansas governor who has made arts education his big school initiative.
And to Democrat Barack Obama, an African-American candidate who has billed himself as a force for change, who has dared to broach the subject of merit pay for teachers and who hasn't been nearly as fierce in his opposition of No Child Left Behind as some of his opponents. (Democrat Hillary Clinton made a passing mention of the law in her speech last night after finishing a disappointing third.)
But this is what isn't clear: While voters wanted a change in this nation's leadership, will there be the same demand for change in the direction of education, especially when it comes to federal involvement?
The entrance and exit polling in Iowa sponsored by media outlets shed no light on how education may have influenced votes—because the issue probably didn't. The top issues for Democrats were the economy, Iraq, and health care, in that order. Republicans said illegal immigration, followed by Iraq, the economy, and terrorism were their top issues. Education didn't make either list.
Update: The education blogsphere is full of Iowa reactions. Read takes by Alexander Russo, the Education Writers Association Education Election bloggers, Joe Williams, and ED in '08's Roy Romer.
In the last Republican presidential debate before the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses, two of the candidates, Mike Huckabee of Arkansas and Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, argued about which had the better education record as his state's governor.
You can read a transcript of the debate here, and you'll see that education was a hot topic—from Congressman Ron Paul's assertion that the major education problem is that judges have driven God out of schools to former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani's repeated assertion that school choice will result in an education "revolution."
But back to the issue of who's the best governor on education...There are three candidates with gubernatorial experience in the field—besides former governors Huckabee and Romney, there's current New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democrat.
In reponse to a question today about education, Huckabee declared that he had the "most impressive education record." He certainly has one of the longest ones—having served from 1996-2007 in Arkansas' highest office, when he presided over tumultous debates about rural school consolidation and a school funding system that had been ruled unconstitutional by the Arkansas Supreme Court.
Romney retorted that he wasn't so sure that Huckabee should make that claim—and boasted of high test scores while he was governor in Massachusetts from 2003-2007.
Coincidentally, about that same time Romney was answering that question, I was talking to the president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association about Romney for an upcoming story I'm working on for Education Week about the education records of the governors-turned-presidential-candidates. And although MTA President Anne Wass is a fierce opponent of Romney—who provoked the teachers' unions at nearly every turn with talk of merit pay and possible budget cuts to some education programs—she made a worthy point. Massachusetts, a high-income, high socioeconomic status state, had high test scores before Romney took office, while Romney was in office, and continues to have high test scores now that he's left office. (By the way, in the debate, Romney said the unions have been the "biggest obstacle" to education reform.)
But the larger question is, how much credit may a governor take—or how much blame should he get—for falling or rising test scores?
Over the weekend, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney named his education advisory committee. You can see the entire list here, but the 22-member committee is clearly a who's who of GOP education policy wonks, with a healthy mix of federal and state policy experts. Thanks to my colleagues on the federal beat, David Hoff and Alyson Klein, for helping me hit on the highlights:
—Nina S. Rees is a new Romney convert. The former Bush-Cheney adviser originally was advising Republican presidential competitor and former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, but has now joined Romney's camp as its education co-chair.
—The three other co-chairs are Paul E. Peterson, a government professor at Harvard University and the director of the program on education policy and governance at the university's John F. Kennedy School of Government, plus U.S. Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon of California, who is the senior Republican on the House Education and Labor Committee, and U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard of Colorado.
—At least two of the committee members were big-wigs in Florida education policy. John Winn was the state's education commissioner under then-Gov. Jeb Bush from 2004-2007, while Mary Laura Bragg helped implement one of Jeb Bush's hallmark literacy programs, Just Read! Florida.
—William D. Hansen also made the list. He's a former deputy U.S. secretary of education who now works with Rod Paige, a former first-term education secretary under President Bush, and whose implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act has been criticized. Paige founded the Chartwell Education Group consulting firm, of which Hansen is a director.
—Romney tapped several Massachusetts education policy wonks. James A. Peyser, who is now a partner with the NewSchools Venture Fund of California (which has raised $100 million to help start new charter schools), was a Romney education adviser in Massachusetts, along with Robert M. Costrell, now an education reform and economics professor at the University of Arkansas.
—Eugene W. Hickok, who works for the lobbying firm Dutko Worldwide, is on Romney's committee as well. The former Pennsylvania secretary of education and a former No. 2 official in the federal Department of Education under President Bush in March paid $50,000 to settle possible conflict-of-interest charges over stock he owned in a bank that participated in the federal student-loan program.
Last night's CNN/YouTube Republican debate in Florida provided an opportunity for regular people to submit questions to the presidential questions via video through YouTube—and thousands did. As I scanned the questions beforehand, I found that hundreds dealt with education, from how the candidates would change No Child Left Behind and help students better afford college to where the candidates stand on evolution in the classroom and national standards.
But only one of the 33 questions asked during the debate even touched on the subject of education. Perhaps the producers could have swapped out the question about the Confederate flag for a weighty question about the future of K-12 education in this country.
The question that did prompt a discussion about education sparked an exchange between former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney over college tuition assistance for children of illegal immigrants. Romney, who is duking it out with Huckabee for a win in the Jan. 3 Iowa caucus, is trying to paint the former Arkansas governor as a liberal for supporting a proposal several years ago in Arkansas that would have given the children of illegal immigrants the same chance at academic scholarships (if they meet other residency requirements) as other students. Romney argued that children of illegal immigrants were getting a "special deal," while Huckabee countered that children shouldn't be "punished" for illegal actions of their parents. Watch their exchange below:
Over at Learning the Language, my colleague, Mary Ann Zehr, has a must-read about the presidential candidates' views on bilingual education.
While all of the Democratic frontrunners said they supported bilingual education, only Republican Mitt Romney and the lesser-known Tom Tancredo responded in time to the survey Mary Ann featured in her post. They came out against bilingual education.
While some may disagree with Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who supported a 2002 voter-approved initiative against bilingual education, at least he responded to the survey. And although his campaign's response was a little murky, he has staked out a clear stance against bilingual education on the campaign trail.
Update: The presidential candidates are providing a lot of fodder for EdWeek bloggers. Over at NCLB: Act II, my colleague, David Hoff, writes about how NCLB is still the candidates' favorite punching bag.
Check out this blog item at The Washington Post, which details Republican Mitt Romney's brief statement of support on Sunday for student testing as part of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
The former Massachusetts governor may not be taking the popular stance in defending standardized testing. But, he's clearly distinguishing himself in the pack of presidential candidates in both political parties who are routinely bashing the federal school accountability law.
One of his spokesmen seems to think so.
Check out this story about Rhode Island Gov. Donald L. Carcieri in the Providence Journal. (You have to scroll down about half-way through this story to get to the Carcieri education secretary nugget.) The Republican governor's communications director told a local talk-radio audience earlier this month that if former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney wins the presidency, there's talk that Carcieri will be tapped as his secretary of education.
From the way the article reads, however, Carcieri is by no means a shoe-in for the post. After all, even though campaign season is heating up, Janaury 2009 (when we'll have a new president) is still a long way away.
