NBC's Education Nation Summit: Joe Trippi, Michelle Rhee, & More

Now that the final bell has rung on NBC's week-long Education Nation conference, we can ask the extra credit question: When did school choice go mainstream?

The "summit," held at NBC's New York studios at Rockefeller Center, almost felt like a publicity junket for "Waiting for Superman," a highly praised new documentary advocating for charter schools. A national TV audience watched as D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee chewed out teachers union honcho Randi Weingarten for spending $1 million in campaign funds to halt Rhee's reform agenda. Morning Joe's Mika Brzezinski took a shot at Weingarten for resisting merit pay for teachers. And what to make of former Howard Dean campaign manager Joe Trippi working to promote National School Choice Week, slated for January 2011?

Will Democrats turn their newfound zeal for school choice into policies that actually banish unions from the classroom and empower parents and students? Reason.tv's Michael Moynihan went to Education Nation to find out.

Produced by Jim Epstein and Michael Moynihan, with help from Joshua Swain. Approximately 4.15 minutes.

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• Education Nation
• Education Reform
• Randi Weingarten
• Michelle Rhee
• Joe Trippi
• Waiting for Superman
• Reason Magazine
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• Reason.tv
• Michael Moynihan
• Charter Schools
• libertarian
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[CurtHowland]

The only option that will truly empower parents and students is a COMPLETE separation of school and state.

No more tax funding what so ever.

[yakyakyak69]

Gov't = No Choice SLAVERY

Free Market = Free Choice COMPETITION

[CyberSpaceman81]

The legacy of these unions is a growing record of drop outs, while covering their ass on tenure tied to collective bargaining rights. Randi Weingarten even spoke of wanting teachers unions to "self" police themselves. This is while even fellow Liberal started successful charter programs are protested by them to be shut down. I am glad some Liberals have woken up on this, but i hope we educate better again to send people to personal private sector successes, not to "created" collectivist jobs.

[CurtHowland]

@1092jniufvhorh "Who will pay for everyone's education then?"

Education is very inexpensive. It takes only a couple hours a day for a few months to teach someone to read, and then they can learn anything.

"Every school should get state funding"

Before you start spending everyone else's money on "school", maybe you should take some time and find out the difference between "school" and "education".

They are not the same thing.

[1092jniufvhorh]

@CurtHowland Who will pay for everyone's education then? Every school should get state funding, but not every school should get the same amount perhaps...

Funding should correspond to observable progress (NOT test results, though...)

[CurtHowland]

@Esus4 "The real issue is educating the chronically undereducated."

Education, not schooling, does not cost very much. You, and I, and other interested people will contribute to efforts to bring education to those who need it.

Schooling, in comparison, is hideously expensive. Yet you still talk about "chronically undereducated" and "the left behinds" as if those sorts of things are happening today.

They are happening, even with govt schooling, because schooling has nothing to do with education.

[Esus4]

@CurtHowland The status of education in India is not really the question at hand. The real issue is educating the chronically undereducated. Separating the more highly motivated students from the less so will only lower the remaining exectations of the left behinds.

[CurtHowland]

@Esus4 "Poor people certainly have absolutely no need to educate their children."

How's that working out for you, by the way?

Those inner-city "poor" schools with the 50% drop out rates, and graduates who can't read or do basic math?

Seriously, I recommend you do some research on the topic. How about the poorest of the poor, in India? The ones who founded their own private schools because the state schools suck so bad.

research. ncl. ac. uk/egwest/articles/Tooley Dixon articles/Delhi. pdf

[Esus4]

@CurtHowland That is truly brilliant. We can have schools completely privately funded. Poor people certainly have absolutely no need to educate their children. Yes, I believe you are the most astute commenter on the subject of education.