Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Law Students Blogs -> Urban Law Journal

Law Students

: Urban Law Journal

Education Reform: Governor Mike Huckabee

By 3L at Seton Hall University School of Law and Editor-in-Chief of the Law Review.

Governor Huckabee offers a detailed analysis of his plan to reform American education. I applaud the Governor for recognizing the need to ?judge the success of our schools by the results we obtain, not the revenue we spend.? Too often, reform plans are advocated simply for the price tag attached to them.

He stresses his track record of supporting home schooling, charter schools, and public school choice. Mr. Huckabee calls for ?Weapons of Mass Instruction? (teaching music and art) to encourage the creativity. He considers art and music instruction as important as math and science, with critical secondary and tertiary benefits that benefit students from lower socio-economic benefits.

The Governor is the only candidate I?ve come across that can take credit for removing poorly performing teachers from the classroom (under the Fair Dismissal Law he signed as governor). He raised teacher salaries to attract top talent, and increased transparency in the way money is spent by schools. Mr. Huckabee also calls for providing bonuses and forgiving student loan debt for high performing teachers in low-performing teachers, and imposing "reasonable waiting periods" for teachers to earn tenure. He emphasizes the role of charter schools as "laboratories of education reform," and unique in their levels of parental involvement.

Full post as published by Urban Law Journal on January 29, 2008 (boomark / email).