Reply #18: In 2000, DLC and Al From started pushing to transform public education.

[madfloridian]

Transforming by privatizing. That's what its all about.

http://www.educationreport.org/pubs/mer/article.asp?ID=2693

"Characterizing charter schools as "oases of innovation," From writes, "The time has come to bring life to the rest of the desert-by introducing the same forces of choice and competition to every public school in America."

From also says Democrats should work to redefine the very notion of public education itself.

"We should rid ourselves of the rigid notion that public schools are defined by who owns and operates them," he writes. "In the twenty-first century, a public school should be any school that is of the people (accountable to public authorities for its results), by the people (paid for by the public), and for the people (open to the public and geared toward public purposes)."

The DLC's mission, as part of the Democratic Party, is to articulate "a new public philosophy built on progressive ideals, mainstream values, and innovative, nonbureaucratic solutions."

Commonly known as the "New Democrats," the DLC was noted in 1992 as playing an instrumental role in the nomination of one of its former chairs, Bill Clinton, as the party's candidate for president."
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And the DLC spanks the NEA for not wanting to cripple public education.

http://www.ndol.net/ndol_ci.cfm?kaid=131&subid=192&contentid=1359

"This week the nation's largest teachers union, the National Education Association, rejected a mildly worded resolution endorsing limited experimentation with performance-based teacher pay. The excuses offered for this disappointing action are familiar and largely pointless: states and school boards could theoretically use merit-based pay to cut teacher salaries or use the wrong performance measurements. It's always possible, of course, to implement a good idea the wrong way, but that's no reason to reject the idea itself.

The contrast between the NEA and its sister union, the American Federation of Teachers, on this issue is typical and instructive. While not explicitly endorsing the concept, AFT President Sandra Feldman in an interesting and important speech to the Economic Club of Detroit, in January, urged a greater willingness among teachers to look at alternative pay schemes as a way to raise teacher pay and reward excellence and high skill.

In the long run, linking teacher pay to performance is not only the best way, but the only way, to muster public support for the higher salaries that teachers' unions rightly support"

Bull Hockey.