The Odd Couple to visit BASIS

by David Safier
No, not that odd couple. Much, much odder.

This is part of a nationwide tour.

This whole thing is worrisome to me. We have two basic philosophical camps about what's wrong with education right now, and which one dominates will determine a lot about what direction we take in the next few years.

One camp says, schools are at fault, and if we just make the schools better, student achievement will soar.

The other says, schools can't do it without support from the community. That means parents have to get more involved, students need community encouragement to succeed and — this is a biggie — our racial and social inequities have to be lessened. If we combine those things with better educational practices, we'll see better student achievement.

I'm in the second camp. Fixing the schools in isolation is not the answer. But conservatives, much as they like the idea of making families more responsible, don't want to mess with societal conditions. And some liberals, especially African Americans, accuse the families-too approach of "blaming the victim."

Where are Gingrich, Sharpton and Duncan in this philosophical divide? I'm not sure. I'm willing to bet they're closer to the first camp, which is why I'm worried. Obama has at least one foot in the second camp, but it looks like he's mainly delegated education issues to Duncan.

We'll see. We'll see.