Brummett lauds Obama’s education secretary as a middle path on school change — a leader who has attempted elements of performance pay for teachers and charter schools but who also draws encouraging words from teacher unions.

Note that, in Chicago, Arne Duncan collaborated with teachers on pay experiments. It wasn’t a top-down proscription from Bentonville or the paid shills at Walton U., the general method preferred in Arkansas. Back in the big “merit pay” fuss in LR when Walton/Hussman stooge Roy Brooks was in charge, the union urged study of a collaborative plan implemented successfully in Colorado. But, no, only the top-down model — instituted in secret without public input — would do. Inclusion is always a better model than exclusion.

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