Published for USNews.com, September 30th, 2010:

In February 2001, after a historic and divisive election battle, President George W. Bush and Sen. Ted Kennedy sat down to watch Thirteen Days, a film about Sen. Kennedy’s brother, John, and the Cuban Missile Crisis. But it was much more than popcorn and a movie at the White House. These leaders set aside their differences and came together to focus on their common desire to improve the education system for our children.

I’m sure every one of our elected officials wants the problems with our public schools fixed, but few seem willing to give a little to reach common ground. The political climate today is deeply polarized. The upcoming midterm elections put this divide into sharp relief. At times it seems hard to imagine competing interests even sitting down together at the table, much less going to the movies together. But both sides did come together two weeks ago in Washington, D.C., for the premiere of the new documentary about U.S. schools, Waiting for Superman. When it comes to education, there is a history of bipartisanship in Washington.

In the days following the 2000 election, we changed the debate. We were able to zero in on the things that mattered most to kids—dispensing with the typical positions long pushed by entrenched interests on both sides of the aisle. We built consensus to pass the No Child Left Behind Act to help close the achievement gap with accountability, flexibility, and choice. President Bush and Republicans in Congress were determined to tie taxpayer investments to results. To achieve this, they gave the federal government a substantive yet discreet federal role in education while preserving local control. Members of both parties came together around strategies to help schools get all kids on grade level in the core subjects of reading and math.

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Published for The Washington Post, September 29th, 2010:

This month, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) wrote a column ["A better deal on for-profit colleges," Washington Forum] excoriating for-profit postsecondary education. As chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Harkin should be taking a broader view of the challenges facing U.S. higher education. This includes considering how to achieve President Obama’s goal of America having the highest college graduation rate in the world by 2020; Harkin should be among those leading a national dialogue on how to improve college access for all students — especially those most in need.

Five years ago, as secretary of education, I appointed a bipartisan Commission on the Future of Higher Education and charged it with crafting a plan to address the critical issues of accessibility, affordability and accountability. The commission heard from dozens of experts and many members of the public and then offered bold recommendations to dramatically improve access to college and raise college completion rates for millions of Americans.

I embraced the proposals, which included calls for increased aid for low-income students, robust accountability and transparency at institutions, and a renewed focus on innovation and quality. I worked to advance these ideas with policymakers and leaders in higher education.

For the most part, the higher education establishment balked, actively working to get Congress to affirm the status quo. Lawmakers obliged and reauthorized the Higher Education Act, largely dismissing the commission’s work. Ignored to the detriment of students and families were recommendations to overhaul an outdated accreditation system, to develop a results-oriented model of quality assurance that would lead to greater accountability, to control costs by rewarding innovation and productivity, and to replace a byzantine federal financial aid system with one more in line with students’ needs and national priorities.

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As published for education.nationaljournal.com on July 13, 2009:

As a mother who paid for a college education for my recently-graduated daughter and who is about to pay again for my rising high school senior (I’m one of the lucky few who can continue to do so), this topic hits close to home.
College students of all ages need to be more demanding of colleges about what they want from this product called “higher education”. Unlike years past, they can no longer be satisfied with buying a name brand and hoping for the best in the marketplace. Buyers (college students) must be savvier consumers who better understand three variables – price, the value of their education in the marketplace (i.e. can I get a job or does this put me on a course to my ultimate career destination or goal?), and the value of the time it takes to gain these skills or competencies. Today, consumers are often unable to make these evaluations since there is a dearth of information about what they are buying, where it will take them, and how it will enrich their lives in ways that may not be immediately marketable or quantifiable. And on top of all of that, students and families face issues related to student loans and financing and whether they have the adequate preparation in high school to allow them to be successful in college and graduate in four years.

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As published for education.nationaljournal.com on June 30, 2009:

It’s true that some states are facing state budget woes, and stimulus dollars will inevitably be used to stave off serious cuts—the best example of this is California. But we should not excuse states from advancing reform on this basis. The biggest impediment to reform is—and has always been—political will, not money.
Congress and the Administration have sent two messages with this unprecedented level of federal funding: fill in budget gaps, and reform education. There’s been lots of talk about how to fulfill both priorities at once. But the answer isn’t really about the money and what the fiscal situation looks like in each state. The reality is that Congress punted the issue to state and local policymakers to make these decisions, as almost all of the stimulus dollars are awarded by formula to states and districts. If local leaders have the political will to stand up to the status quo and really spend money on reform-oriented policies, then it’s within their ability to do so. But the real problem is that too many have been unwilling to engage in making hard decisions, and those that have taken on the fight have been defeated by a well-funded group who prefers the status quo.

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As published on washingtonpost.com on May 10, 2009:

One of my daughters attends a private school with students who are in the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. As a mother of two girls, I cannot imagine the gut-wrenching conversations happening in homes around this city when parents of current scholarship recipients heard about President Obama’s compromise. His plan allows those currently receiving scholarships to continue in the program but closes this opportunity to their younger sisters and brothers.

I have met many of these families; they have been lifted by the progress they have seen their children make in this program. They don’t want to go back to the D.C. schools that failed to serve them. I cannot imagine trying to explain to my daughters why one had a chance to soar and the other didn’t. Like me, some people have the means or the position not to have to make such a choice. Many of them serve in public positions beholden to the unions that helped elect them, and not to the families who seek education and opportunity for every single one of their kids.

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As published on washingtonpost.com on May 4, 2009:

Rising Scores Show Why We Can’t Retreat

Student achievement results from the “nation’s report card” published last week show that we are on the right track. Since enactment of the bipartisan No Child Left Behind Act, which called for all students to be on grade level in reading and math by 2014, students have been making progress in reading and math in elementary and middle school. Improvement has been greatest for African American and Hispanic students and those students who are lowest-achieving.

But in our high schools, the National Assessment of Educational Progress data tell a troubling story, especially in light of our need to compete in a global knowledge economy.

Scores continue to be flat for 17-year-olds in both reading and math over the almost 30-year history of the test. We know that only half of African American and Hispanic students graduate from high school on time. Yet policymakers have not had the courage to use the real accountability that is working in our elementary and middle schools in our high schools.

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