As an example of how politics effects education innovation, article in NYTimes on battles between top charter school leader Eva S. Moskowitz and the new Mayor of NY, De Blasio who campaigned on “anti charter schools” platform and denied 3 applications in recent days by Moskowitz group for new charter schools.
Perhaps someone from NY might be able to explain fully the politics involved, but these are AFAIK exemplary charter schools that are being “attacked’ for seemingly purely political reasons.
Posted here as forewarning. There are reasons why educational reform has been so hard to come by in US for decades… and since its big money, and big public expenditure, politics are inevitably involved. Alas.