Obama never learned

Let’s go back in time. It’s 1971; young Barack Obama has just moved back to his native Hawaii to live with his maternal grandparents, Madelyn (“Toot”) and Stanley Dunham. Barack has just completed fourth grade in Indonesia and has left his mother  and half-sister behind in Jakarta. “It was time for me to attend an American school” (Dreams from My Father, p.54).

Emerson said, “There is properly no history; only biography.”

Passing on the local Honolulu public school system, young Barack uses “Gramp’s” connections to cut a long wait list and enrolls in the posh Punahou Academy, a renowned “incubator for island elites.” Toot’s salary (she’s a bank vice president) and a partial scholarship keep him there through high school.

Private schooling served Mr. Obama well. He compiled a dazzling record of accomplishments … climaxing in his now famous stint as first-ever African American editor of the Harvard Law Review. People took note. The rest is history. 

That’s what we gained; what we lost was the chance to elect in 2008 a president with first-hand knowledge of American public education. 

Undeterred by the unfamiliar landscape, the new president charged headlong into the pitched battle then being waged against teachers and their unions by what its creators call the “education reform movement.” Ostensibly, “reform” seeks to transform American public education by introducing “accountability.”

Obama picked the “reform” side and made instant bedfellows of its leadership. Checkout a roster of “reform’s” high command: Arne Duncan, Michelle Rhee, Jeb Bush, Bill Gates, Steven Brill, Davis Guggenheim: top-heavy with cash but frighteningly lacking in first-hand experience. Not a public school grad in the bunch.