When is education reform not really education reform?

A: When it is a Memorial!

One would think that this would be obvious, but apparently the folks at the Latino Education Task Force who complained in today’s Albuquerque Journal about the Governor’s reforms (which would all be actual laws) are going the wrong direction. So, what “reform” did the Coalition come up with? A House Memorial that will “gather input from school districts, the PED, and community leaders to develop a ‘comprehensive plan’ to eliminate the achievement gap.”

Well, if it was THAT easy, why didn’t we form such a commission years or even decades before? Of course, the unspoken truth is that the school districts in particular have been among the biggest obstacles to education reform. They have quite a bit at stake in the status quo, so they might not be real keen on reforms like those that succeeded in Florida or will likely succeed in Louisiana.

The rest of the column is mere happy-talk and pablum, designed to say the right words without actually meaning anything or taking a particular stand. Kind of like the “reforms” they are proposing.