Morning Shots

Sometimes an offhand remark can help bring crystal clarity to an issue. Last week’s revelation of an incendiary email between Colorado lawmakers is a case in point.

If you haven’t heard yet, here’s the inflammatory part of the message Rep. Mike Merrifield (D-Manitou Springs) sent to Sen. Sue Windels (D-Arvada) on December 8:

“There must be a special place in Hell for these Privatizers, Charerizers, session,” which ends in May.

It appears that the anti-school-choice Democrat is keeping his options open. Perhaps he plans to return to the chair after the fire and brimstone he unleashed has smoldered a bit.

Among the most outraged are many of the parents of Colorado’s 52,000 charter school students—7 percent of the state’s total public school enrollment. Enacted in 1993, charter schools have established deep roots here in Colorado. Acceptance of parental choice in education has continued to spread and grow.

Merrifield specifically lashed out at efforts to import the successful Cesar Chavez Academy charter school model to Hunt Elementary in Colorado Springs. More than 90 percent of Cesar Chavez elementary students score proficient on state tests, though nearly two-thirds of them qualify for free and reduced lunch. Only half

Read More …

Time and space are not available to point out the naiveté and multiple errors in Diana Schemo’s March 9th above-the-fold article, "In War Over Teaching Reading, a U.S. – Local Clash." As the New York Times bills itself as the newspaper of record, that is a missed opportunity. In the same issue another front page story caught my eye. It discussed the 71 percent increase of crime in America’s cities. In the article Rochester, NY Mayor Robert Duffy is quoted as saying, "his city had the state’s highest dropout rate – half of all students drop out.” Hello? Anyone make a connection between the lack of reading skills, drop out rates and increased crime?

Reading First unanimously passed Congress with strong bipartisan, bicameral support.  The leaders in developing this legislation were Chairman of the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee George Miller; Senate Education Committee members Ted Kennedy and Judd Gregg, and Minority Leader John Boehner.  President Bush signed it into law January 8, 2002.  None of these leaders considered that the Reading First law was abridging local control when the law was passed.  Rather they believed that the time had come to change the paradigm from years of federal education program failure to one of success.

The 2007 review of effective programs by the Office of Management and Budget placed Reading First as one of only four federal education programs considered to be “effective”.  In Reading First, accountability was the theme, and what better way to improve reading instruction for America’s most vulnerable children than to apply the converging findings of the last 30 years of research in reading methodology and brain function?  This research was conducted at some of America’s most prestigious Universities such as Harvard, Yale, NYU, Wake Forest, and Georgia Tech, at a cost of

Read More …

Last week, President Bush signed legislation to rename the U.S. Department of Education building after President Lyndon Baines Johnson, who signed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, which is still the basis of federal education policy today. As I wrote in December, this symbolic tribute sets the stage for the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind by forcing Congress to rethink the federal role in education.

Four decades have passed since Johnson signed ESEA, and yet the important goal of that original legislation – ensuring that disadvantaged children in America receive a quality education – remains largely unfulfilled.

One might expect broad agreement that it’s time to rethink the federal education strategy that has failed so decisively, but some congressional leaders prefer to press on down the same road that’s been followed since 1965. In an op-ed for the Washington Post, Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy, chairmen of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, wrote that the there should be "No Retreat on School Reform."

No Child Left Behind, he wrote, "is a promise to do all we can so that every American child receives the high quality education he or she needs and deserves." He continued: "We may never achieve that lofty goal, but if we hope to keep America strong and just, prosperous and free, we can never stop trying." Kennedy pledged to champion the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind and push for significant funding increases for federal education programs.

Senator Kennedy should understand better than most the tragic history of federal education policy. After all, he has served in the Senate since 1963 and had an opportunity to influence the original Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 and each of the following eight reauthorizations. This year’s reauthorization could be the ninth time that

Read More …