"It's a sad commentary on Democrats that they've allowed 'educational accountability' to become a winning issue for the GOP."Mr. Alter wants Democrats to reclaim the debate and indeed the entire issue by shouting down the teacher unions and firing all the incompetent teachers! Indeed Mr. Alter praises the No Child Left Behind policy saying,
"..the real fault of NCLB will become clear: it doesn't go far enough." Not only must we "identify failing schools we must go even further and identify failing teachers."
There you have it ladies and gentlemen. First it's the school's fault. Test scores aren't high enough and unless they improve, teachers will be fired, students will be allowed to transfer, federal funding will be removed, YOU'LL BE LISTED AS A FAILING SCHOOL IN THE LOCAL NEWSPAPER! Second, it's the student's fault. They don't study enough, they stay up too late, they don't test well, they speak the wrong language, they watch too much TV, they don't read often enough or well enough. And now we find out that it's also the TEACHER'S FAULT!
The real tragedy is that the GOP has managed to hijack the education issue turning weak kneed Democrats into unthinking radical reactionaries. They've managed to define the debate and turn it against the very folks most involved and most knowledgeable. Indeed the folks who care the most about education are now being scapegoated! Mr. Alter, IGNORING INTELLIGENCE is the way this administration makes policy! Remember, the same administration that led us to war by ignoring the intelligence community, the military, historians, and any advisors that didn't follow the Neo-Con dogma, gave us No Child Left Behind. We've got people to blame! We've got a real, measurable, accountability method now! Just raise test scores! (Besides there's a real nice company in Texas that will package a school curriculum and provide everything you need to raise those precious test scores and at a nice price too!)
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