Irrespective of party, politicians often target and malign education — as author Erika Christakis very capably makes clear — making hay of education’s perceived failings. But, this negative rhetoric ignores what we know to be true: the American public education system, despite some anecdotal problems, despite struggling with mixed financial investments, despite being the frequent target of opportunistic and misinformed politicians, does provide an overall positive benefit to school children and families. And further, educators are not satisfied, educators are not done with attempting to improve.
Education’s Taxing Problem
Michigan’s Proposal A shifted the burden of school funding from property taxes to sales tax, with the goal of reducing the funding inequities between disparate school districts. Now, despite the school funding shift, inequities remain and questions remain regarding adequacy: what is an appropriate level of funding, and how do policy makers budget for it? This article on Pennsylvania school funding has implications for all states, as legislators grapple with how to pay for education:
In short, every state is wrestling with the issue of educational funding inequity.
Because we know that education funding systems relying on property taxes are inherently unfair, that zip codes and property values are wildly uneven across states, regions, and even municipalities, Michigan’s system needs to overcome inequities while providing adequacy.
Why For-Profit Education Fails
Because of the new leadership at the U.S. Department of Education, educators worry that political ideologies and unproven agendas will be pushed and imposed, 
rather than reforms based on best practice and research. In this article published in The Atlantic, the failures of the for-profit education reform sector are examined.
The Complexity of School Choice as Improvement Model
The Harvard Graduate School of Education‘s online journal Usable Knowledge published an interview with educational economist Joshua Goodman regarding the implications of President Elect Donald Trump’s selection of Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education. Specifically,
The selection (of DeVos) has raised larger questions about who should finance education, how schools should be held accountable, and even how we define the value of a public school system.
A major factor negatively influencing school choice and market pressures as the sole direction of education improvement efforts are the lack of immediacy, where school quality is more difficult to measure than in other areas of the economy, like Goodman’s examples of restaurants and grocery stores.
Inside Detroit’s Radical Experiment to Save Its Public Schools
Referencing this older article about the complete restructuring of Detroit Public Schools, but it’s instructive for education reform efforts when parent Arlyssa Heard’s comments are considered:
“We have people making decisions who do not have children here and don’t know anything about what educators are facing in the classroom.”
Education reform efforts need to involve educators and parents, reliant on research and best practice and local influence, absent of ideology.