To the critics, Obama sent this message on 29 July 2010: "... But I know there's also been some controversy about the initiative [Race to the Top]. Part of it, I believe, reflects a general resistance to change; a comfort with the status quo. But there have also been criticisms, including from some folks in the civil rights community, about particular elements of Race to the Top."
Just two days before, Secretary Duncan offered a similar refrain: "We have to challenge the status quo--because the status quo in public education is not nearly good enough--not with a quarter of all students and, almost half, 50% of African-American and Latino young men and women dropping out of high school."
School reform advocates supporting school choice and competition at the heart of that reform see a much different Obama than the critics from the left. Consider this blog post from Rick Hess's EdWeek blog: "Good for Obama. These are hard things to say, especially for a Democratic President facing a challenging fall, and he deserves much credit for hanging tough."
Good for Obama? These are hard things to say? Hanging tough?
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When I read Obama's and Duncan's defenses of their policies by charging those opposing them as defenders of the status quo, and when I read people praising Obama for his bravery in the face of that status quo, I thought of Ellison--and the nature of brave words.
It is no brave thing said or done, the policies of the Obama administration, because the words and policies are built on mythologies and ideologies that we dare not question or speak against and not on the evidence of when and why our students fail.
The truth, the complicated truth uncovered if we move beyond political discourse, is that neither democracy nor capitalism will ever address the plight of children in poverty. Children have no political power since they cannot vote, and children have no capital with which to sway the market (except for their proxy roles spending the disposable capital of relatively affluent parents).
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