Our Report from the Mackinac Island Conference.

Hello and a sunny welcome from beautiful Mackinac Island, Michigan where the beautiful people of the education reform set have all penciled in this beautiful island made famous by Esther Williams in the movie Grand Hotel, for their Spring getaways.  It's Mackinac Island Conference Week and if there's one thing on the menu besides Chianti Chef Keith Shockling's Semolina Dusted Lake Huron Whitefish, it's education reform.

Where else can you hobnob with celebrities like Michelle Rhee, Harold Ford, Jeb Bush, Robert L. Johnson, Joe Scarborough, Governor Rick Snyder, and U.S. Representative Fred Upton, without even leaving your hotel balcony. 

Today, we saw several great speeches on urban revitalization including Jeb Bush's keynote where he showed the characteristic Bush family charisma and grasp of facts.   If there is a better place to discuss education and urban issues than this wonderful little island community where even the servants are imported, I don't know what it is.

Today, Bush railed against our misunderestimation of our children's ability to learn.  Later on, as we shared a horse drawn carriage, I pointed out to him that as the third Bush to hold public office, he was in a unique position to notice the human capacity to learn from our mistakes.

Tomorrow, I hope to get in some yachting and swim in the pool built for movie star Esther Williams for the movie Grand Hotel.   After that, I hope to have a chance to talk to Governor Snyder about our plans to create double decker class rooms, that would allow a teacher on a moving pedestal to teach a class of 100 students, nearly double Michigan's current limit of 60.

Until next time, I bid you caviar wishes and innovative dreams from this hotbed of urban reform, Michigan's crown Jewel, Mackinac Island