by Although the health care debate continues to suck air from public discussion of almost every other domestic policy initiative, a couple of big education stories did hit the headlines last week.
On March 2 President Obama roiled the American educational establishment when he appeared to laud Rhodes Island school authorities for firing every teacher at Central Falls High School (effective for the 2010-11 school year) after the union rejected a modest set of “turnaround” improvements. These included lengthening the school day by 25 minutes, tutoring students before and after school on a rotating schedule, and – as a former teacher I can’t help wonder if this one was the deal-killer – eating lunch with students once a week…
