The Increasing Sounds of Educational Reform Silence?

This was a strangely quiet Sunday morning in terms of education reform.

A quick scan of the NYTimes, Detroit Free Press/News (Sunday edition), Oakland Press, and Birmingham Eccentric revealed no missives on the pending "crisis" in education, no market solutions to our "failing" public schools. Nothing about "rote" education and memorization. The NYTimes Brent Staples did a bit on teacher evaluations and how principals and teachers have to "trust" (such a squishy, humanist term), but, other than, that.....

The silence was intriguing, but unsettling.

I had grown used to the white noise of a well funded political drumbeat: choice, data, competition, choice, data, competition, test, choice, data competition, test, boom, boom, boom.....choice.

Then, today, nothing.

This is the first Sunday in almost two years like this.

The most I could find was a nice story in Downtown Publications which -- more often than not -- is a really nifty seemingly independent magazine as locals go. They covered the House "passing" the Common Core. This was kind of anti-climactic, of course, to all but the far left and far right. Most schools, including BHSD and Birmingham, had their CC materials in place a year or more ago. Still the write-up is quite good. Here is the Downtown article:
http://www.downtownpublications.com/1editorialbody.lasso?-token.folder=comm/2013/09/27&-token.story=...

In it, you will find some stunningly sane commentary from local politicians on public education.

 Mike McCready, for example, is quoted as saying, "I believe in our superintendents [Nerad and Glass]. They're excellent, and I need to listen to them."

Wait? What?

Yes, Mr. McCready, they are very good and we are fortunate to have them. Thanks for listening. Please keep at it. You will be pleased, as they say in education reform, with the "outcomes."

Mike Kowall says, "Teachers always need to be creative." What? Yes.

Now don't get too excited parents. This is only the Common Core ( having come of age in the "culture wars" of the 80s I now sleep through most curriculum discussions and worry only about more goofy tests....) -- not dissolving districts or funding -- but it still makes one wonder.

There is a distinct shift in the reformers' tone, here and elsewhere, allowing perhaps for saner but still quite conservative voices like McCready to be heard. The "kill all the teachers" Mackinac Center rhetoric, it seems, is losing some of its purchase.

Diane Ravitch's Reign of Error cracked the top ten on the NYTimes bestseller list. Former state superintendent, Tom Watkins, finally has found another job and has ceased writing about the "educational establishment" and "canaries in the coal mine" ( itself a canary in the coal mine for reformers in this state?). Can the current superintendent Mike "Dissolution" Flanagan follow suit? Is he employable elsewhere?

Governor Snyder is still chatting up "Any where, Any time" education but is distinctly NOT cheerleading for the EAA in public and "Dr." Covington. The statewide turnaround codification bill remains in suspended animation with the Senate Education Committee. HB4369 where are you? Don't you remember Mr. Moss saying Highland Park had waited long enough for help and we need to act now! Before Christmas (2012, that is)?? Are you waiting to fix the crisis until after November 2014???

Hoax indeed.

The reasons for the suspension? Plenty. But education reform in Michigan seems to have temporarily hit the wall at BHSD. School unbundling and district dissolution paused (hard) at Pontiac.

 The media word to watch for now is still the identification of the paid (750 over 2 years) "consultant" for Pontiac Schools, part of deal that kept that District open. A political deal was crafted here to slow down the Lansing craze for closing schools to improve education. Who will that be? Dr. Covington? Oakland Intermediate Schools? BHSD itself?

Don't get me wrong: The silence is restful.

But the lack of transparency -- I am sure many public school watchers of all stripes would agree -- is deeply troubling. Is this silence marking a true change? A slow down? Or is it the silence like the one that followed the 2012 lame duck where Lansing decided to move "piecemeal" to unbundle Districts and push for privatization across the board? (Hello, darkness my old friend...I've come to speak with you again)

Or is it simply that Lansing let their own jargon (choice, data, test, choo, choo) freight trains run out of control and aren't sure what to do next, realizing that damaging long thriving Oakland County public schools was really not the best idea after all?

If that is the case, simply come back to reason and Oakland County where it has been demonstrated time and time again that Republican government and public education can work very, very well together when you honestly recognize "excellence" and listen to coherent arguments not drumbeats.