Checking-In on Kevin Huffman
TN's former education commissioner still peddling bad ideas
Peter Greene notes that Tennessee’s former Commissioner of Education, Kevin Huffman, took to the pages of the Washington Post in search of relevance.
Specifically, Huffman laments the lack of focus on education as an issue in this year’s presidential race.
I suspect Huffman is concerned because the Democratic candidate is solidly pro-teacher and pro-public schools and the Republican is, well, Donald Trump. Trump talks some about vouchers and a fair amount about abolishing the federal Department of Education.
Neither candidate seems particularly interested in Huffman’s brand of education “reform.”
Harris’s record includes focusing attention on increasing teacher compensation and choosing a running mate who is a former teacher and union member.
Walz won acclaim as Minnesota Governor for signing a law establishing free school meals for all kids in the state’s public schools.
So, what does Huffman want instead of investment in teachers, support for public schools, and free meals for kids?
Greene notes:
Huffman also wants the feds to replace ESSA (too weak) with "a return to nationwide education goals" along with accountability measures. Ans also, grants for states that "pursue ambitious education reform" as, one assumes, defined by the feds.
In other words, Huffman would like to rewind to 2002 and start NCLB/CCSS/RTTT all over again, and I guess we can say that keeping on with something that hasn't worked yet is on brand for Huffman. But man-- it all didn't work the first time, and not just "didn't work" but "did more harm than good."
As Greene’s column makes clear, Huffman wasn’t exactly well-liked among Tennessee teachers and school leaders.
A decade ago, I wrote about the celebratory mood in the state as Huffman announced his departure from the Education Commissioner job.
So, Tennessee teachers started off hearing from Huffman that they had failed. Then, resources for support didn’t materialize and the transition to Common Core wasn’t well-communicated. Huffman suggested the same flawed, value-added based evaluations were responsible for a 2013 NAEP boost, and then a promised pay raise was taken away.
That’s right. Kevin Huffman blamed TN’s relatively low ranking on standardized tests on teachers - and not on the state’s chronically low investment in schools. Did nothing to push new investment in schools. Failed to deliver on promised new teacher development programs. Promised teachers a pay raise and then failed to deliver. Pushed a charter advancement agenda that, as Green’s column notes, caused “more harm than good.” Never apologized for any of it.
Come to think of it, maybe he would be a good fit for a Trump Administration.
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