Carl Glickman's blog

In a recent article, Ed Week writer Debra Viadero reported on the research of Joseph Kahne and Ellen Middaugh, who have "documented a steady rise this decade in the percentages of young people who vote in primaries and general elections." The percentage of 18- to 29-year-olds who voted in national elections, for example, rose from 37 percent in 1996 to 52 percent in 2008…. Statistics also show that a majority of young people report …. volunteering while in high school…at much higher rates than their parents ever did.

We feel compelled to report to the American people that the business and financial foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people. What was unimaginable a generation ago has begun to occur— companies that extolled themselves as models of excellent practices have deceived the American people with sloppy, undisciplined, and greedy practices that are driving  Americans out of their homes, threatening their retirements, and dashing their hopes of a financially  secure future. Indeed, if an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre corporate financial performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war.

The 2008 Election edition of the award-winning book Letters to the Next President: What We Can Do About the Real Crisis in Public Education will be in bookstores this coming week. With debates ranging over the progress and reauthorization of NCLB, and with presidential candidates formulating education agendas for the future of American schools, we should use this period of time to influence our legislators at all levels of government about what should be done to improve education and society. The book is a collection of thirty short, readable letters written by students, teachers, parents, legislators, entertainers, and others ranging in age from eight to eighty and in position from Navajo children to the world's most famous astronaut.