Jonathan Alter in Newsweek making the case that "U.S. education reform has made more progress in the last year than in the previous 10" and "how the president is driving the effort."
Cheesy start (the movie "Jackass" as feeble straw man) mars the piece.
The cited "engine of reform" is Obama's Race to the Top program. Small pot of money but successful, says Alter, in establishing national standards and lifting state caps on charter schools.
Other details covered, but political case made is that it took a "Nixon" (liberal Dem) to effectively do battle with teachers' unions.
To be watched . . ..