So Why Isn’t Congress Cheering?
Or the NAACP? Or the DNC? Or the PTA? Here's the story about the D.C. school system:
[Michelle Rhee] has closed 23 schools and restructured 27 others. She fired more than 250 teachers and about one-third of the principals at the system's 128 schools. She has gotten legislative authority to reclassify hundreds of nonunion central-office employees in a way that makes them easier to remove.
In her first year, "the one-year gains were greater than the prior four years altogether." The number of elementary-school students reading at grade level improved 8%; in math, the improvement was 11%. The number of secondary students on grade level has risen 9% in each category.
There is an editorial by Terry Moe on this subject in the Wall Street Journal today.
John, the answer to your question is simple. People who claim to care about poor children, especially nonwhite poor children, don’t. Or, they care about their own political ambitions more.
The leadership of the black community sees the public schools as a jobs program, not as a way for children to learn. That means, the schools are ther to serve the interests of the teachers, not the students.
With the future of the voucher lottery in peril, the D.C. schools need all the help they can get.