What You Can Learn About Education and Journalism From Joe Williams

Earlier this week, I finally had the chance to sit down and talk with Joe Williams, the former Milwaukee and New York City education reporter (and author and blogger), and two things struck me -- besides the fact that he basically seems like a smart and decent guy:

The first is is that here's yet another example of a talented and committed journalist who's deeply interested in education issues who moves off the beat or gets out of the newsroom. Williams left his reporter's job a year ago just around the time his book came out, and seems to have been thriving since then -- writing about school reform all over the place, blogging mightily on education issues large and small, and still getting to pick his kids up from school.

The second thing is that, compared to many parents, educators, journalists, and perhaps especially editors, Williams really "gets" just how political education is -- that it's very often about adults working out money and power relationships while seeming to talk about kids and education. Bringing the fundamentally political nature of school reform to life is, I think, one of the only ways to engage the press and the public -- and ultimately the politicians and other stakeholders -- on making some of the hard, big changes that are needed.