Carrying mixed emotions, I went to a recent lunch round table with freshman U.S. Senator Michael Bennet, a Democrat from Colorado. He’s a Wesleyan classmate who I barely knew. I admired the work he had done with the Denver public schools, but still, the lunch was all about raising $$$. So I was skeptical. But given my belief that education is the biggest issue our country faces, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to press the “eduation” Senator on his solution to the travesty that is America’s school systems.
Citing Obama’s unexpected strength in dealing with the UAW, I asked Bennet whether he felt the Democrats were ready to deal with the teachers’ union directly. He made clear that we all should be ashamed of what has happened to our school systems and that no one party can be singled out. But he did say that in Denver he has asked kids and parents to address all the constituents to break the log-jam, and that he stood firm on creating teacher pay, training, and certification systems that made sense.
On a national basis, he pointed out, there looms a division within the Democratic Party, between the “Labor” and “Civil Rights” members of Congress. He felt hopeful that there could be a compromise but, in the end, he felt it was up to the Labor loyalist to find a way to compromise with the Civil Rights members of Congress.
Amen to that. Our first priority has to be the at-risk boys across this country who are put behind the eight ball by sub-par instruction at broken schools.
