It is a quadrennial tradition.  The party in the White House has poor results in the gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia, and the pundits predict doom and gloom in the mid-term elections.  (Of course, then the party in the White House has losses in the House and maybe losses in the Senate and the pundits say “see we told you so.”  So what lessons should we take from this week’s results.

First, Terry McAuliffe did make a gaffe.  Using the classic definition of a gaffe, he told the truth that nobody wants to hear.  In his case, in response to questions about education, he noted that parents do not get to dictate to the schools what the schools teach.  This statement is partially true.   But as with most sound bites, explaining what was meant takes a lot of time and does not overcome the gut reaction to the original statement.

What is absolutely true is that public schools are not a system of private tutors.  Teachers are responsible for teaching a class of students.    For the system to work, Johnny has to be using the same books and Kathy.  So Johnny’s parents do not get to decide the materials that Johnny has to read for the course. Continue Reading...