Issues of the Future Symposium: Public Education Reform

Alumni Lounge, Tufts University

Saturday, February 6, 2010 from 12 pm – 4pm

The Issues of the Future Symposium is a forum for leading thinkers, policymakers, and engaged citizens to discuss the future of a politically controversial topic of great importance to America’s future sponsored by the Tufts Democrats. As an organization of young Democrats, we consider the Symposium an opportunity to reconsider the party line on topics demanding fresh ideas about public policy.

The implementation of public education reform is our topic this year, a year in which the new presidential administration has placed education reform at the top of its political agenda. Using funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, President Barack Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan established the Race to the Top Fund. Race to the Top “provides competitive grants to encourage and reward States that are creating the conditions for education innovation and reform.” The Fund, in other words, is a $4.35 billion incentive for significant reforms in education policy. One of those reforms is the mandatory loosening of charter school caps.

To consider the impact of this legislation and some of its challenges, Deborah Meier, founder of the small schools movement and a senior scholar at the Steinhardt School of Education at New York University, will deliver our keynote address. Ms. Meier is the founder of the Mission Hill School in Boston, and is the author of numerous books on public education.

Following Ms. Meier’s address and a light lunch, the first panel will host speakers representing different schools with differing educational models in the Boston area. Alan Safran, Executive Director of the MATCH Charter School in Boston, Kevin Brill, Associate head of the Fenway School, and Larry Myatt, Senior Fellow for Leadership and Education Ventures at Northeastern University, will discuss how different education models have succeeded in educating “at-risk” students, and how the lessons they have learned about public education can be translated into successful education policy across the country. Tufts student Will Ehrenfeld will moderate this panel.

The second panel will consider some of the challenges, political and practical, of expanding charter schools and implementing the reforms called for by Race to the Top. It will feature Josh Biber, Teach for America Boston’s Executive Director and Richard Stutman, President of the Boston Teachers Union. The two have fought publically over contract issues and TFA’s expansion into the Boston area, but share a common desire to improve public education. Joining them will be Dr. Tony Pierantozzi, Superintendant of Somerville Public Schools, who will provide insight about the diverse community in our backyard. Tufts Professor Steve Cohen will moderate this panel.