Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
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Thursday, May 14, 2009
Politics and schools: A long love affair
For as long as I’ve been writing about education (and, of course, long before that) people have complained about politics becoming enmeshed in schools. I wish I had a dollar for every time I heard somebody complain that if they could just depoliticize schools things would be better.
But that’s a pipe dream. It’s just the nature of the beast. Schools are a huge government-run enterprise and at the top of the organizational chart — locally, at the state level and nationally — are elected officials. And elected officials play politics as a matter of survival.
Consider the recent example of U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s joint appearance with Gov. Ted Strickland at what amounted to a political rally last week. There were lots of political undertones to the speechmaking and media interviews afterward. Check out my column today for more.
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