Real Money Begets Real Change

From the Wall Street Journal - Obama's Education Chief Knows Stars Are Aligned for Real Change

http://online.wsj.com/wsjgate?subURI=%2Farticle%2FSB123723145666945761-email.html&nonsubURI=%2Farticle_email%2FSB123723145666945761-lMyQjAxMDI5MzE3NjIxMzYxWj.html

My take? Education has seen some wonderful isolated examples of change happening throughout the country. It will be wonderful to have enough money to spread these programs further. I'm a parent and a pragmatist, however. A parent or guardian's role in their child's education is vital to success regardless of if a child is lucky enough to be in an innovative program or not. My son is in a small school in the less affluent section of our town. We are a mix here because we live in the historic district and we have families who span all degrees of economic prosperity. Many of our neighbors have placed their kids in magnet schools or private schools. We prefer being a part of our neighborhood and so our son (and our daughter will as well) goes to the little school up the street.

I believe that even our small school does a great job despite being just a "plain old public school." The difference in my son's education? Me. I take responsibility for making sure he has good opportunity and he has enrichment or remediation when needed. But I'm different than the average person. I have access to this information.

I'd love to see a shake up in education. I think creativity is a good thing and I'm glad to see the government is willing to put big bucks behind innovation. My children are going to get a good education regardless of where they go because I'll make sure they do.