Obama Won, But Did Educators Lose In the Process?

By Paul L. Thomas, Ed.D.
As long as accountability remains the educational law of the land, students are bound to lose out, says a professor of education.

For three decades, one block of American voters and workers has lost politically regardless of which party or candidate has won: educators.

That was again likely the case in 2012 despite the re-election of Barack Obama and despite a few positive political victories vis a vis education ballot initiatives and the election of state-level education leaders. Since the rise of Ronald Reagan and the release of “A Nation at Risk” — a politically biased report under Reagan that characterized public education as a failed institution — educators have had no political party, because both major political parties have dedicated their entire education agenda and policies to the accountability movement, founded on a laughable “our standards and tests are better than your standards and tests” ideology.

With Obama’s 2008 election, educators and advocates for the public good were filled with hope that change was coming after eight years of the George W. Bush administration, which championed a bipartisan education agenda built on the self-defeating No Child Left Behind. But Obama’s first four years have only perpetuated and even intensified the worst aspects of the Bush era led by Rod Paige and Margaret Spellings—specifically with the appointment of Arne Duncan as Secretary of Education and through policy such as Race to the Top and opting out of NCLB.

The evidence teaches us that with the re-election of Obama, educators may have lost again.

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