If you had a chance to ask a political leader about education policy, what would you ask about? Class size reduction? Early childhood education? Teacher salaries? Professional development?  Effective reading instruction? 

Political insider Dan Gerstein has a really important question he wants to ask Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.):

"In the past you have been willing to embrace controversial education reforms that the teachers unions have opposed. Can you name two or three policies today that would fall into that category? Will you make the same commitment your husband did to support the growth of high-performing public charter schools as one tool to help close the achievement gap, no matter how strongly the unions oppose them?"

Instead of focusing on the effectiveness of education policies favored by Sen. Clinton, wants to know whether she has the guts to name two or three "controversial" policies.  Ugh. The question boils down to this:  Can you please prove to me that you are independent and authentic by doing two or three things that I believe -- or pretend to believe -- will irritate your supporters?  Apparently, all that matters is that elected officials are controversial and gutsy.  Oh, and not that it matters much that the premise of such a silly question is wrong, but, as we noted in a recent post, the American Federation of Teachers proudly represents charter school employees in Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Florida.

(Hat Tip: Joe Williams.  Margaret Paynich, writing at Ed Week/This Week in Education, took up the subject here.)