When President Barack Obama wants to prove he is a centrist, and not afraid to tell his own supporters they are wrong, the one thin reed he has is some nice words on education policy. True, he doesn’t have much of an actual record of bucking the education lobby on policy (see Freddoso for example) but he does have a history of rhetorically supporting charter schools and merit pay; two things that most unions oppose vehemently.
Ohio Governor Ted Strickland is also a down the line liberal who pretends to be centrist, but he has failed to emulate the leader of his party on the issue of charter schools. Instead of embracing charter schools - called community schools in Ohio - he has launched an all out attack on them via the state budget.
What is remarkable is that the state’s editorial boards - who have criticized charters in the past and are no bastions of conservatism - have responded by calling on Strickland to listen to Obama and stop his partisan attack on the schools.
