As Ned mentioned yesterday, I’m on a two-day junket to the Twin Cities, hoping to complete an in-depth report on how Minnesotans have psychologically coped with the loss of Norm Coleman as an elected representative. Being on such a vacation allows for indulgences like playing pundit-critic. So let’s take a look at today’s David Brooks NYT column!

Brooks writes an evergreen piece today on Obama education policy. The twist, as it were, is that Brooks, the conservative, likes Obama, the liberal, when it comes to education. Brooks especially likes Obama doing anything that will upset teachers’ unions and benefit the proliferation of charter schools. He, for example, cites a recent Stanford University study that shows charter schools raise student achievement yet ignores a different Stanford study that came out at like exactly the same time showing that charter schools had no effect on student performance.

The omission of competing findings on charter schools reveals a bigger problem in Brooks’ logic: his pro-reform ideology gets in the way of facts — like accurately describing the education system he wants reformed.  Namely, Brooks ignores how the recession has ravaged the budgets for state education departments and local school districts.  Brooks wants to change the status quo, but there is no fixed ”status quo” to attack right now — education departments are in flux, laying off teachers and cutting programs.

On the issue of  state ed. departments applying for Federal Dept. of Education grants, Brooks writes that, “Politicians from both parties are going to lobby fiercely to ensure that their state gets money, regardless of the merits.” But state governors are probably more concerned right now about their immediate education budget crises than how their personal ideas on teachers unions and charter schools jibe with the Obama administration. Washington — and Beltway commentators like Brooks — need to better appreciate the fiscal situation states have right now: schools need to first get back to the personnel, program and resource levels of the loathed status quo before they can reform.

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