Some 20 years ago, I worked as Assistant Secretary of Education in the administration of President George Herbert Walker Bush.
I was in charge of the Office of Educational Research and Improvement and also Counselor to the Secretary of Education, who was Lamar Alexander.
Secretary Alexander took a big risk with me because I was a Democrat with no prior experience in government.
I developed great admiration for him as a thinker and leader. He understood the limits of federalism and he was always careful not to use the power of the federal government to force states or localities to do what he or his party wanted.
Now he is a Senator and is the ranking Republican member of the Senate committee that oversees the Department of Education.
At hearings about the NCLB waivers last week, he expressed puzzlement that state officials want Washington to tie their hands and give them mandates.
This was the most interesting exchange, as reported in the New York Times:
At a Senate education committee hearing on Thursday to discusswaivers to states on some provisions of the law, Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee, forcefully urged the federal government to get out of the way.
“We only give you 10 percent of your money,” said Mr. Alexander, pressing John B. King Jr., the education commissioner for New York State. “Why do I have to come from the mountains of Tennessee to tell New York that’s good for you?”
Dr. King argued that the federal government needed to set “a few clear, bright-line parameters” to protect students, especially vulnerable groups among the poor, minorities and the disabled.
“It’s important to set the right floor around accountability,” Dr. King said.
Now, here is the question: Why does New York State Commissioner John King fear that children who are poor, minorities, and the disabled will be neglected by his state if the federal government doesn’t demand higher test scores from them?
Does he fear that the New York Board of Regents will abandon these children?
Will Commissioner King abandon them if the federal government retreats from its unrealistic expectation that 100% of them must be proficient on state tests?
Why does he want a federal law to force him to do what he wants to do anyway?
Reading this exchange, I am reminded of Lamar Alexander’s down-home wisdom.
Please, Lamar, repeal the accountability provisions of NCLB. Restore federalism. Stop the assault on state and local control of education.
Compel the U.S. Department of Education to do what it is supposed to do by law: to protect the rights of children; to distribute federal funds where they are needed most; to collect information and conduct impartial research on the condition of American education.
And to stop imposing failed ideas on the nation’s public schools.
Is this a trap? I mean, sure, I am all for anything that rids us of these failed Federal programs, but I fear that a sudden interest in State’s rights by the Republican side is suspiciously coinciding with the inescapable realization that the electoral math is going to preclude Republicans from the Whitehouse for another decade at least.
Eli Broad and the gang can’t buy the Whitehouse, and even Congress (as a whole) is a tall order for them–but picking off local school boards one by one is well within their means.
I completely agree, however, that local control is better except on general American principles e.g. Brown–and I think we have no choice but to welcome the pushback against Federal control (and then, State-level control). It doesn’t mean the war is over though, it’s just changing the location of the battleground.
Don’t Broad, Gates, Walton, and others already own the White House? Obama’s education policy is Broad; Arne Duncan was a Broad graduate whose selection as Sec’y of Education evoked from Broad delighted squeals of pleasure, “the stars have aligned,” or something like that he quipped. RTTT is NCLB with more money behind it. Both major parties have the same education policy, the same economic policy(Obama just appointed a deep Wall St insider Mary Jo White to replace outgoing deep Wall St insider Tim Geithner), the same foreign policy, etc. There is no liberal or progressive alternative unless we consolidate behind a third party that stands for public educe, teachers, students, families at the bottom, and communities without billionaires.
These details may not be important when analysis hits a certain level of abstraction, but Timothy Geithner was the Secretary of the Treasury. Mary Jo White is the new SEC Chair[wo]man.
The States’ Rotters have been bought and whipsawed into their slots. The North has gone South and the South has learned to carpetbag itself. The Corporate States of America are the new CSA and this time they are winning the Civil War.
Happy Lincoln’s Birthday, Everybody❢
The daily howler wrote about Lamar Alexander today, also.
Seems back in ’96 Mr Alexander was the victim of one of those fatuous, non issue attacks our elite press corps love to really delve into.
Interesting read:
http://dailyhowler.blogspot.com/2013/02/a-few-more-of-those-forbidden-histories.html
I remember some of the issue attacks, too. They said he was for merit pay, education reform, vouchers, and charters. And against unions. He said pretty much the same things about himself.
Alexander was gov of TN in the 1980’s and he instituted the first merit based teacher evaluation system in the country called the TN Career Ladder. Out of three levels, teachers who reached level 3 received a yearly bonus, level 2s received a slightly less yearly bonus. If a teacher reached level 3 or had a masters degree they were re-evaluated once every 10 years under the assumption that experience and advanced degrees mean teachers were viewed as experts.To his credit, the system was devised by educators and the evaluators were highly trained teachers who were given paid leave from classroom duties.
Teachers across the state were demoralized for years in spite of several modifications and adjustments made to the Career Ladder. The program never actually identified quality teaching and it put teachers in competition with one another within buildings. The career ladder was finally put to rest in 1998 when the state lege decided the bonuses cost too much money.
Alexander used the Career Ladder as a stepping stone to Sec of Education and now as TN state senator. His unsuccessful run for president in 1996 was foiled by the Clinton machine.
I’m not holding my breath, but I wish Alexander would use his influence to rein in Kevin Huffman and the ALEC written legislation crushing TN public schools under the thumbs of billionaire dilettantes.
I don’t agree with everything Lamar did as governor, but the point of my post is that he believes in state and local control, not federal mandates. By now, Tennessee should know that merit pay doesn’t work. Everyone should know it. But this is the idea that never works and never dies.
Diane, you can think a federal law is bad without having to join the federalist society. Sometimes state and local control is good, sometimes federal mandates are good.
All of those things were true. Lamar Alexander is for vouchers, charters, merit pay, etc., but he doesn’t think the federal government should force them on states and districts. They should make their own decisions. That’s federalism.
Being a Republican I would think Dr. King’s purpose is to be able to say, “the feds made us do it”, rather than take responsibility for making the necessary decisions to protect the children. This seems reasonable given that Republican governors opposed the stimulus on one hand as they snatched it up with the other and oppose Obamacare yet are coming around to using it. They just don’t want to be seen as accepting anything a black president does. The whole first term they opposed everything he presented, even if they had presented it first, so what would one expect.
King is Andrew Cuomo’s pseudo voice. Your taking a peak into what a Cuomo presidency might look like. Anti-public worker, anti-union, anti-state control on education.
Let’s not forget that John King’s experience is chiefly in the charter sector. He lacks public school experience, therefore he doesn’t understand the importance and responsibilities of public schools. He assumes, that our responsibilities lie within a business plan of some corporation. His comments demonstrates his ignorance of the public trust.
He’s pitiful. New York had excellent learning standards, a comprehensive assessment program that included Regent exams, elementary Social studies exams, and more. He systematically trashed them all, while Gov. Cuomo held back necessary aid and tied the hands of local communities via a tax cap based on undemocratic principals.
Look where we are today!
One more thing. I apologize for the grammar errors in my post. I wrote it at breakneck speed and didn’t proof it.
Ha. But you are correct. King and his minions do not know state history.,They did not know that teachers wrote Regents exams. Because teachers can write exams? What?
State and local control? It looks attractive at this moment because of the content of the policies the Obama administration is implementing.
But would state and local policies be better?
Would Mike Bloomberg give more money to elect his type of school board member?
Would StudentsFirst also be used for this purpose?
The problem of money in politics is growing.
And the Democrats, who very the only viable alternative in the past,
are just a lighter shade of grey in this case..
Federal vs. State vs. Local is a kettle of red herrings.
What make the difference is corporate vs. democratic rule.
These days, all levels of government are becoming more and more corporate owned.
Diane- GREAT response! You go girl! Peace and Love, Mimi Brodsky Chenfeld
Diane,
Who else sits on the senate committee that oversees the department of ed? If I were to send a copy of this petition in, who might be an ally?
http://signon.org/sign/repeal-no-child-left-1
Senator Tom Harkin.
Thank you!
Diane,
This is off topic, but did you know you are featured (warmly) in videos posted by Two Teachers and a Microphone?
No, I did not. I am honored.
Yes, you’ve been nominated to replace Arne!
I second.
If only it were so…
Diane,
While we both agree in our critical stance in opposition to the aggressive and overblown role of the DOE in driving school policy (NCLB, Race to the Top, etc..), your praise for Lamar Alexander is at best one-sided. It’s true that, like many southern pols, Alexander is anti-big govt., and for states-rights when it comes to education. It’s also true that at the moment, his opposition, along with that of conservative pals like John Chubb, have slowed that roll.
But, like Chubb, he’s an even more forceful school privatizer, a voucher proponent and virulently anti-union, which is the main content of his anti-federalism. He’s basically against gov’t. regulation of the corporations, especially in areas of health care and education.
Most telling is his history as a protege of Chris Whittle (Edison Schools) and a shareholder in Whittle Communications. In fact it was Whittle who made Alexander a wealthy man and paved the way for him to become gov of Tennessee. When Alexander became Sec. of Ed. Whittle hoped a national voucher bill would be a boon for Edison private schools, complete with Channel One. When this failed to materialize, Whittle switched gears and Edison moved its operations to charters.
Mike Klonsky
Mike,
Your chronology is wrong. Edison was created AFTER Alexander became Secretary.to my knowledge, no one got rich from holding stock in Edison. And as Secretary, Alexander would not be allowed to hold stock in any education business.
Please delete the last sentence on my comment. It was made in error.
mk
Diane,
I don’t want to take up a lot of space and time on this but since you mention it — yes some people did get rich on holding Edison stock (back then it was Whittle Communications stock), those that bought it cheap and sold it dear. Take Lamar Alexander (and Mrs. Alexander) for example.
Former Department of Education employee and writer Lisa Schiffren says that, “His fortune is founded on sweetheart deals not available to the general public, and a series of cozy sinecures provided by local businessmen. Such deals are not illegal…” Schiffren further notes that, in 1987, Alexander helped found Corporate Child Care Management, Inc. (now known as Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc.), a company that – via a merger – is now the nation’s largest provider of worksite day care. While businessman Jack C. Massey spent $2 million on this enterprise, Alexander co-founded the company with only $5,000 of stock which increased in value to $800,000, a 15,900 percent return within four years.
Also in 1987, he a wrote a never-cashed investment check for $10,000 to Christopher Whittle for shares in Whittle Communications that increased in value to $330,000. In 1991, Alexander’s house just purchased for $570,000 was sold to Whittle for $977,500. Alexander’s wife obtained an $133,000 profit from her $8,900 investment in a company created to privatize prisons. Alexander frequently shifted assets to his wife’s name, yet such transfers are not legal under federal ethics and security laws.[24] In his 2005 U.S. Senate financial disclosure report, he listed personal ownership of BFAM (Bright Horizons Family Solutions) stock valued (at that time) between $1 million and $5 million dollars. He taught about the American character as a faculty member at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.
And so it goes. Great thinker & leader? I don’t agree. Clever investor with other people’s money. Yes.
What do you think of him now? Bought by the NRA.
I think that Lamar Alexander deserves a lot of credit for getting rid of NCLB. He actually might have gone along with less testing-it was the Democrats and some civil rights organizations who fought it. You can be a statesman even if you are a Republican and have the common sense and pragmatism to avoid the destruction of public schools. I am a liberal Democrat but credit should be given when credit is deserved.