I've been fortunate enough to have several radio appearances to promote my new book coming out this week, and one of those appearances coming up will be on the local coverage of All Things Considered on Minnesota Public Radio. They've suggested that, in addition to talking about how my book Teaching in Circles explores a love/hate relationship with the teaching profession, that I should be prepared to offer my viewpoints on various candidates and their positions on education issues. I have my own thoughts on this and would welcome feedback and insight from others.
This isn't a new matter for me. I try to follow the candidates closely, especially at the presidential level, and I was specifically asked about them as part of an article by Christian conservative magazine The World:
On the presidential race, Nathan Miller has already made up his mind: He will vote for Barack Obama.
Miller, a high-school English teacher in Apple Valley, Minn., recently penned Teaching in Circles, a memoir he said "explores what compels me to stick with teaching and what is trying to drive me away."
Obama is offering more solutions that address the latter, Miller said: "John McCain seems to see that the problems with public education lie within the schools and that the solutions are to be found outside the schools. Obama seems to be suggesting more solutions that work inside the schools that would reach kids who are struggling."
Miller, a registered Democrat in his 11th year of teaching, said the kids who struggle most "are those who don't come from healthy homes in the first place. McCain's idea that giving parents more control and more school choices doesn't actually solve the underlying problem of uninvolved parents."
I mentioned several things that didn't get included in the article, but the choice to me is quite clear when looking at Sen. Obama's approach to public education compared to that of Sen. McCain. Essentially, are schools a positive (if not always successful) public institution deserving of support, or are the schools and teachers themselves the problem needing to be rescued by parents and communities?
I can tell you that as a teacher, rhetoric that blames me for real and imagined school shortcomings is a real turn off. I'd much rather be given a vision of hope and a sense that I am part of the solution than a vision of blame and being part of the problem.
Clearly there are literally hundreds of finer points of distinction between the candidates and their education policy proposals, but I welcome any suggestions for succinct statements that would play well on radio interviews. As much as I'm supposed to be there to promote my book, given the opportunity I will gladly use the platform to push for Obama/Biden 08.