Standing Up To Teachers Unions: New AEI Report on Pres.Obama & Ed. Reform
Michael Q. McShane | Turning the tides: President Obama and education reform
September 14, 2012

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In a new research paper, American Enterprise Institute (AEI) education expert Michael McShane assesses President Obama's record on education reform, and explains how, in a 'Nixon goes to China' fashion, he has stood up to teachers unions.

With Rahm Emanuel (Mayor of Chicago and President Obama’s former WH chief of staff) engaged in a show down with the striking Chicago Teachers Union, McShane’s new report offers the following timely insights

•    Obama's unique position: President Obama’s unique status as an African American Democrat hailing from a large urban center with a history in community organizing has allowed him to tackle education reform in a way that others before him could not.

•    Throwing down the gauntlet: By promoting reforms involving school choice, teacher performance data, teacher evaluation, and a widening teacher pipeline, President Obama has fundamentally challenged entrenched special interest groups such as teachers unions, which have had a historically outsized influence on education policymaking.

•    Dems v. Unions: New normal of education politics? Obama's education initiatives mark a significant pivot in the Democratic Party's position on education that will have lasting impact on the landscape of education politics.

Michael McShane is a research fellow in education policy studies at AEI and the author of the forthcoming book President Obama and Education Reform: The Personal and the Political (Palgrave-MacMillan, 2012). He is available for interviews and can be reached at michael.mcshane@aei.org or through lauren.aronson@aei.org (202.862.5904).

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About the Author

 

Michael Q.
McShane

  • Michael Q. McShane is a research fellow in education policy studies at AEI and concurrently a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas. While obtaining a master’s degree from the University of Notre Dame's Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) program, he taught ninth and tenth grade English and religion studies at St. Jude Educational Institute in Montgomery, Alabama where he was also the assistant baseball coach. His first book, "President Obama and Education Reform: The Personal and the Political" (co-authored with Robert Maranto), was published by Palgrave Macmillan in September 2012.  At AEI, McShane will be working on federal education policy, and the politics of education reform (including school choice, and Common Core standards).

  • Phone: 202-862-5838
    Email: Michael.McShane@aei.org
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