Senator Obama and a question

["Tauna Rogers" <taunar@plateautel.net>]

As you know, it has been reported that in a statement to the Miilwaukee Journal Sentinal, Senator Barack Obama, while skeptical, said he would be open to private school vouchers if studies can show they work. It is my understanding that a longitudinal study of the Milwaukee experiment is actually underway. 

Here is a link to the video taken at the editorial board of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal session with Obama:
http://video.ap.org/v/Default.aspx?g=31914bb2-065d-4969-830d-00d6053e7ddc&mk&partner=en-ap

I like Senator Obama. I think he means well and will not be easily deceived by psuedo research purporting to show that vouchers work. Nevertheless, it concerns me that he has been a strong supporter of charter schools. 

To my knowledge, there are no reputable studies showing that charter schools outperform traditional public schools when controlling for demographics. And I'm reminded of the Lubienski NAEP study as well as the federal DOE study, both of which showed that charters do not outperform regular public schools. And there's also the "Charter School Dust-Up".

Given his recent statement, it is a sure bet that Obama is going to be flooded with studies claiming to show that vouchers and charters work.  Heck, I'm sure he would be flooded with them anyway.

In addition to the studies I referenced above, I'm wondering what evidence Monty Neill, Gerald Bracey, George Schmidt, and other ARN contributors would recommend we get into the hands of the Obama campaign? And to Hillary Clinton's campain too. 

George reports on what is taking place in Chicago with the corporate hijacking of public education but I wonder how knowledgable Obama and his team really are about the underhanded inner workings of what is actually taking place there?

While I would gladly embrace true reforms intended to strengthen, improve, and support public education (rather than scapegoat and discredit it), I believe we cannot emphasize too strongly that nothing will help our nation's struggling poor and minority students more than directly addressing the long-neglected elephants in the classroom...namely poverty and its deprivations. 

Tauna

P.S. I was heartened recently to learn that Linda-Darling Hammond was named as one of Obama's education advisors. Is she the person we should direct communications to?