President Bush didn’t devote much time to the topic of education during his State of the Union address last night, but that’s not stopping the chatter of education bloggers on the Web. Though the White House put out a detailed briefing of the president’s newest thoughts on education a day earlier, during the actual speech Mr. Bush’s education comments were brief. He lauded the federal No Child Left Behind Act and called for its renewal. He spoke in favor of increased flexibility, school choice, and more education dollars for struggling students.
This Week in Education takes a quick look at how much the president spoke on education compared to past years; edspresso gets a few guest comments (including Eduwonk’s Andy Rotherham and Fordham’s Michael J. Petrilli) and also dissects the proposals put out by the White House; AFT’s NCLBlog gets crabby over some Washington Post coverage and lower down also looks at the pre-speech education proposals; and The Charter Blog takes a close look at the school choice ideas. For a broader view of the president’s speech and its implications for education, make sure to read Education Week’s story.
Several bloggers had something education-related to say about the “real people” in First Lady Laura Bush’s box at the speech. A Constrained Vision points out that some of the guests had significant education ties. At TPM Café, blogger Kenneth Baer opines on the choice of Julie Aigner-Clark as a featured guest. Ms. Aigner-Clark created the Baby Einstein company, which has encouraged millions of parents to park their babies in front of the television.