IEA media discussion.
From Tim Furman:
You make a good point. I wouldn’t expect a link out of IEA— if I got one, I would think I was losing my edge– but there are a lot excellent, in-the-trenches bloggers with rich, informed blogrolls. I find new ones all the time. Even if he wanted to pick from posts that don’t criticize IEA-help positions, he’s got a lot of options.
Ironically, yesterday I was remarking that Ezra Klein at the Washington Post occasionally chimes in on ed policy, but he relies solely on Matt Yglesias at Think Progress, whose ed policy writing is not terrible but is predicated on a reformy outlook— sort of an unquestioning attitude toward “accountability” and the widely promulgated myth of systemic public school failure. It’s as if Ezra Klein has not even met Valerie Strauss or Walt Gardner, two journalists at this own paper who contribute a great deal to the discussion. So, it’s sort of the opposite problem there.
From me:
Why shouldn’t we expect a link out of the IEA? Charlie claims In the News includes anti-union links so that the membership is informed about the current climate. It says something about the undemocratic leadership and top level staff of the IEA that internal critics, or teacher critics, are banned from the union website. I was asked by the media people at the NEA if they could link to my blog on their site, Ed Voices. Once I posted a critical article about Ken Swanson, I was scrubbed from the site.
I’m a dues paying member of both the IEA and the NEA. And I’m an outspoken, well-known defender of teacher unionism. But I’m banned from my own union’s media outlets.
I’ll make a deal. Charlie can have a regular column on my blog if he gives me a regular column on his. I say it’s his, because if anybody thinks the IEA website belongs to the rank-and-file members, they’re kidding themselves.
