By Steve Gunn
EAGnews.org

During a highly-publicized speech Wednesday before the NAACP national convention, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney put his finger on the difference between himself and President Obama on the topic of education reform.

Obama maintains close political ties with the nation’s largest teachers unions, which remain welded to the tired status quo in K-12 education. Too many necessary reforms – getting rid of “last in, first out” layoff policies for teachers, dumping tenure protections and increasing the number of private school voucher programs – run contrary to the union agenda.

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The Obama campaign likes to brag about the President’s education reform efforts, which were actually quite ambitious for a liberal Democrat with strong ties to Big Labor. But in too many instances, Obama seemed timid about pushing for major changes without a nod and a wink from his friends in the NEA and AFT.

A perfect example is the “Race to the Top” initiative, which doled out billions of dollars in federal education funds to states that promised to pass fundamental reforms, like tougher evaluation standards for teachers.

But any school district that wanted to sign on to a state’s RTTT plan needed the approval of local union officials. And any state plan submitted without the blessing of state union leaders had one strike against it before the game began.

Another example is the D.C. voucher program, which has allowed thousands of underprivileged children in the nation’s capital to escape miserable public schools and attend the type of high-quality private schools that Obama’s daughters attend.

The unions hate the program, so the President has spent most of his first term trying to kill it.

President Obama seems determined to balance his loyalty to the unions with his interest in school reform. That will never be an effective policy. Any robust reform plan that really makes a difference will have to be implemented over the objections of the unions.

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Romney summed up the situation for the largely hostile delegates at the NAACP convention:

“When it comes to education reform, candidates cannot have it both ways – talking up education  reform while indulging the same groups that are blocking reform. You can be the voice of disadvantaged public school students, or you can be the protector of special interests like the teachers unions, but you can’t be both. I have made my choice. As president, I will be a champion of real education reform in America, and I won’t let any special interest get in the way.”

That seems like a clear distinction between the two candidates on the topic of K-12 education policy.