I wrote specifically about this issue here:

http://www.stager.org/blog/2008/12/why-australia-worries-me-about-barack.html

It was published in Australia.

Here in Australia we elected a new government just over a year ago – part of the campaign by Rudd was based around an “education revolution”, which included a promise to put a laptop in the hands of every student in Years 9-12. As you can imagine, the public lapped it up.

12 months down the track, and this “revolution” turns out to be mostly about going in circles. There’s been major argument between Federal Govt and the states about who would be paying for the infrastructure and support to go with those laptops (not to mention the massive delays in any rollout, wrangling over exactly how many computers any particular school should receive at one time, etc.), a looming fight over the proposed national curriculum, debate about school league tables and their value (or lack of), and that favourite chestnut of all Aussie Education Ministers, performance pay (which they all say is critical, but never seem to get around to working out how to make it work).

The government’s campaign dramatically raised expectations about change in education in this country, but I expect that in two years time (when we vote again), we’ll see very little difference from where we are right now.

So I’m inclined to think that for the US to have Obama and Duncan “playing it safe” is not necessarily a bad thing – so long as they allow the “grassroots” actions some other commenters have mentioned to take place.

Totally agree about the passive nature of educators, and I think part of the reason is they don’t know what to try to change education into. And, obviously, there is also a scale issue. At what point do we have a cogent enough, compelling enough message and enough people screaming it that we will be taken seriously?

Thanks so much for traveling over here and commenting. Glad to have you in the conversation. And thanks too for the hopeful tone. At various points, we’ve been kicking around the idea of becoming for politically active, and getting outside the echo chamber. In fact, although I’ve set New Year’s Resolutions to broaden the scope of this conversation, this year I mean it. (No, really.) What keeps me thinking about it is the potential of this network…it’s the one thing that I think Obama does get, just doesn’t see the connection to education…yet.

However, I do not reserve judgment on the mass of educators out there (myself, my wife, my father, four aunts, three cousins and hundreds of friends and colleagues included) who continue to sit idly by and simply allow non-educators to create policies that they know from their own experience and expertise are just wrong for kids. If change is to come to education, it has to be initiated by those who need it the most- teachers and students (parents). Unfortunately, we have a national teaching staff who for the most part consistently play prevent defense instead of a run and shoot offense when it comes to education policy.

I believe if the teachers and parents began to make some noise of their own and offered some of their valuable ideas (and I have heard them) for change in their schools, Secretary Duncan and President-Elect Obama would be willing to listen and may even use them to form the national vision our public education system has lacked for a very long time.

I have created an online debate for parents and educators to engage in for the sole purpose of informing and influencing the next administration. I have tried for the past several weeks to promote it and generate participation with little success. This is disheartening, especially since the future of our democracy and indeed our economy depends on the education of the children today.

Please visit: http://educationdebate.blogspot.com to participate in a National Debate about American Public Education in the 21st Century

I just want to add a few thoughts:

As much as I supported Obama (and I did, enthusiastically), never saw any real knowledge of, or interest in fundamental change in education. Not in his campaign, nor in his policy statements, nor in anything he has personally done in the past. I would suspect that he can not get beyond his Ivy League education and his Ivy League advisers on this. The Ivy League (and equivalent “schools of thought” – U-Chicago, U-Michigan, etc) see “the issue” as only a matter of people not doing what they are supposed to be doing. Not as a fundamental system failure. And if your constructed world is one in which people like Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, and Craig Robinson are the “impoverished minorities” then you are likely to see it this way.”If only every student could be in a pre-school like the ritziest in Manhattan.” “If only every student have access to AP classes.”

Let’s put it this way – there is no one in the Obama Administration so far who really knows – in a personal way – that our schools do not work. So there is no sense of urgency.

But more importantly, I think that now there is an Administration with at least part of one ear open, and thus, as your commenters have suggested, real organizing can play a role. One critical way to start is to create a link between our education blogosphere and the political world. First, we must link blog posts, building our standings in Google searches. More vitally, we need to get these posts into the digital hands of every administration member, every congressional staffer, every local political-type that we can, and keep that going, a flood of information challenging the status quo.

Yes, we have a small core now, but that can grow, grow quickly, by building on our online roots.

Thanks again,

Ira Socol