Obama and Daniels: unlikely cohorts

A well-regarded conservative figure and governor of a traditionally Republican state has proposed some broad reforms that are strikingly similar to a plan by the president, a Democrat.

Something odd is occurring.

In this ultra-partisan environment, where anything left of David Frum is a socialist plot to destroy America by instating Sharia Law, seizing all private companies, and simultaneously capitulating to Iran, China, North Korea, Venezuela and ...

I’ll just come out and say it.

The education reform plans put forth by President Obama and Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels are nearly identical in terms of stated goals.

One might think if these two leaders were not distanced by the 10th Amendment and our separation of powers, they might actually work together to enact positive change for our country.

But alas, Daniels is not speaker of the house.

If he were, I think that at the federal level we’d finally see a break in the partisan gridlock, if only temporarily, to pass education reform.

While it seems bipartisanship will be likely, I do not underestimate the ability of the Republicans in Congress to force their ideas into a bill before ultimately voting against it.

We saw this play out in the health care bill. Democrats accepted numerous Republican amendments into the final bill, but in the end Republican support was non-existent.

Several of the most important components of the health care bill were originally conservative ideas, and many key components that liberals had pushed for were eventually left out.

There are many differences, of course, between the education debate and health care debate. Republicans now control one chamber of Congress, and public support is more heavily in favor of education reform than it was for the health care reforms.

Unlike the absurd debate about the quality of our health care (we really are ranked 37th in the world for health care quality), there is actually a consensus in America that our schools are failing.

It is the president and Democrats, not Republicans, who have moved toward the center on the issue of education. Public opinion and alarming statistics have forced them to.

Republicans have moderately modified their stance on the issue, but Democrats are drastically modifying theirs.

They’ve begun to re-examine their close ties to teachers’ unions and dislike of charter and private school subsidies.

Of course Democrats do not wish to abandon public schools in favor of charter and private schools, but their icy stance toward waivers and subsidies is melting. On the other side of the aisle, Republicans aren’t willing to increase funding for education and most propose cuts.  

Therein lies the true difference between Obama’s approach and the approach of Daniels and Republicans.

Obama’s “Race to the Top” program rewarded a total of $4.35 billion to schools who could demonstrate progress in achievement or reform.

Daniels, on the other hand, is slashing higher education spending in Indiana by $37 million per year, on top of a $150 million reduction to higher education that has already occurred under his administration.

Obama and Daniels both have shown they believe that more needs to be done to strengthen school and teacher accountability, that tenure should be reviewed and that we should increase access to private and charter schools for people of all income levels, not just the wealthy.

Accomplishing these reforms looks to be fairly straightforward for Daniels, since in Indiana, Republicans control a sizable majority of the House and Senate.

For Obama, Republicans in the House anxious to control the deficit may deride any meaningful overhauls to the system.

House Republicans may not accept increased funding for education, and Obama will certainly not accept a bill that decreases education funding.

We’ll have to wait and see whether or not Daniels and Obama are able to pull off their education reforms.

We won’t, however, have to speculate too much about what these changes will look like.

With such broad bipartisan support for the issue from the public, our legislators will be compelled to work from the standpoint of moderation.

This could result in good legislation.

The ideas proposed by Daniels and Obama are good ones, and they shouldn’t be lost in a battle over budgets.


E-mail: cdbabcoc@indiana.edu