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As we are coming to a close of our long national nightmare that is the 2016 Presidential election, here's some thoughts from Peter Greene at the Curmudgucation blog tries to explain what Bellwether Education Partners, a reliably reformy right-tilted thinky tank, believes the next president should do in public education policy.

Yeah, it's true. Actually the phrasing was : A) Common Core is a political third rail that we should not be touching at all. Get rid of it. Given that more states are pulling back by themselves, I think the Dems may not have to do much.  And, with King Trump, it would be gone "on day one." 

Last night's Republican convention saw speeches from a couple of Trump's children (I'm not really watching; I let other people do that and report out.)  One of his children, Donald, Jr.,was attempting to introduce his dad as a fairly "aw shucks" kind of guy (which is puzzling given his father's professional persona on tv.)   But in his remarks he said this on public education: Our schools used to be an elevator to the middle class, now they’re stalled on the ground floor. They’re like Soviet-era department stores that are run for the benefit of the clerks and not the customers, for the teachers and the administrators and not the students. You know why other countries do better on K through 12? They let parents choose where to send their own children to school.

As the Republican convention starts today in Cleveland, here are helpful charts from Ed Week on the stands of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump on public education.   There are a couple of areas of gray for Mr. Trump because he either hasn't brought forth an opinion or, more likely, has no clue.

 Update: this post from retired teacher/blogger Fred Klonsky puts it all in perspective. end of update And I'm talking about public education. There was much discussion about the platform's stand on public ed issues early on.  With Hillary Clinton waffling about charter schools (only "high-quality" ones), it was hard to say what would happen. But now wording has been tightened and it looks like the Democratic party has somewhat split the baby (but landed to the side of ed reform not controlled by corporate/philanthropic groups.) From the Washington Post's The Answer Sheet (blue is platform language):

Clinton hasn't been entirely clear on her position on several K-12 issues but, given she like hedge funders and their money, she probably supports charter schools in some form.  But this comment is a true one.

Hillary Clinton seems to be ever-more nuancing her ideas about public education.  A couple of weeks ago she said this (from the Washington Post: ) Clinton also said that public charter schools “should be supplementary, not a substitute” for traditional public schools.  Then, at a closed door meeting with teachers and paraprofessionals on Nov. 9th she said this:

From the Network for Public Education: We've created an action campaign asking Rachel Maddow, the host of the next Democratic presidential forum, to ask one of our 8 questions. Voters should know how the candidates feel about crucial issues like high-stakes standardized testing, student privacy, and equitable funding. With a couple of clicks, you can send her an email, and let her know education policy needs to be part of the discussion. You may have seen Network for Public Education President Diane Ravitch's recent article in Salon . In that piece, Diane cautioned that in 2012 the subject of K-12 education was largely ignored. She said: The media and citizens at public forums must not let that happen again.  Education is central to our future as a nation; it is also the single largest item in every state’s budget. Yet the candidates for the 2016 race in both parties are talking only about pre-kindergarten and higher educatio...

Update: in the "We Must Keep Our Standards High" category, from Diane Ravitch: Malala Yousafzai is the Pakistani girl who was shot by the Taliban on her way to school; she survived to became a world-famous advocate for girls’ education.  She won the Nobel Peace Prize for her advocacy and courage.  She decided she wants to go to Stanford University to study politics and philosophy. But Stanford will not accept her unless she takes the SAT and presumably scores the requisite points. I think this is one reason why my husband liked Berkeley over Stanford (he had degrees from both). end of update. Finishing the first early days of the school year ; how goes it? I would urge you to consider carefully the FERPA form you will get in your First Day packet.  Personally, I would sign away as little as I could.  I will verify this but I have been previously told that it is a principal decision about whether students can or cannot be in the student yearbook if ...

 Required Reading Did you know that there is a move among conservatives to suggest that public schools should not exist?   There is and MSNBC has a good article about this issue.  One place it came up is at FOX News in a discussion over Oklahoma wanting to get rid of AP History. The Fox host said , “There really shouldn’t be public schools, should there?  I mean we should really go to a system where parents of every stripe have a choice, have a say in the kind of education their kids get because, when we have centralized, bureaucratic education doctrines and dogmas like this, that’s exactly what happens.”

It is becoming very clear that both Democrats and Republicans are going to have public education as a major talking point in the 2016 Presidential election.  This is good and bad.  Good because those voters who are paying attention will be able to clearly see who values what and, hopefully, why. It's bad because it may fracture one or both parties. It may make or break candidates (see Chris Christie who is his own worst enemy).   Both parties embrace "ed reform," just not in the same ways.  Interestingly, they both embrace new pre-school efforts, both at the federal and state levels.   First up, the Republicans.  Republicans seemingly don't know what to do with themselves.  There is furious backpedaling all over the place (see Governor Fallin in Oklahoma who was for but now against Common Core).  The conservatives have two major problems. 1) the Tea Party.  Like that mosquito in the night that just buzzes in your ear, the...