[Cincinatus' Wife]

Education secretary sticks by criticism of teachers union

***He charged the NEA with encouraging a "coalition of the whining." He called other education reform critics "nihilists" and made unflattering comparisons to French U.N. diplomats and racists. Paige impoliticly suggested last year that schools with a religious environment were preferable to public schools with diverse values.*** Source

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Lend your support: Rod.Paige@ed.gov

[LiteKeeper]

read later

[AUH2OY2K]

"...one in six African-Americans and one in five Hispanics are proficient in reading by the time they are seniors."
How can this be? The African-Americans are born in this country while many if not most Hispanics are born in non-english speaking countries.

[NewRomeTacitus]

He seems to be a good man, but he backs up my opinion that the Department of Education should be dissolved. Not only is education "local business" of the most personal sort that should be overseen at the state level, his department is a magnet for these "whiners" who impede progress.

All centers of power are targets of special interests. I don't know if the founders considered such when they tried to insure that the states retain more power than the central government.

[Principled]

Yes the NEA is really, really, bad for US students in public schools. But dammit "No Child Left Behind" is no better.

If we want top-notch education then we must get government OUT of education and return 100% of the control to individuals. Run education like a business - have parents choose (gasp) where they send their kids while choosing the tuition they wish to pay.

Schools will still have to be subsidized to a certain extent by LOCAL and STATE taxes (- but not fed taxes)because the amount of tuition should be nominal and vary depending on demand. Why would we have ever agreed to send a chunk of money to DC so that we could be coerced into undesired behaviours just to get our money back???

Teachers and administrators should be accountable to parents, not some federal bureaucracy. When parents hold the cards, education will be good. When government holds the cards, education is just another political tool.

JMHO

[Check6]

"No child left behind", from what we can learn of it, is a pathetic disaster for the President. Someone in his administration actually thought the NEA could be bought by a Republican.

The practical effects of this program that I have heard about are insane and destined to backfire in a big way. Large chunks of local system monies are being diverted to buying textbooks in Spanish and other language in a program that fosters bi-lingual bull and exacerbates the growing language problem and cultural "Balkanization".

[Born Conservative]

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[JOE43270]

I totally agree with the Secretary. Unions may have been good a hundred years ago but the have become one of the bigger problems. The children are the first ones losing because of them and the tax payers are the second. A lot of the children that are graduating, that is what they are calling it, can't read the second grade reading book.

[Doohickey]

Gee, it looks like liberals have finally discovered State's rights. First on homosexual marriage and now on this. And by golly, I think they're right. Defund every single money pit that is not a specific power delegated to the federal bureaucracy by the United States Constitution.

Could it be that liberal social engineers have finally given up on flyover country and the south?

[Stretch]

Maybe the "root cause" is that the faculty and students are still struggling with what the "meaning of 'is' "is".

[DaGman]

If Congress and the President are going to pass an education bill like No Child Left Behind then fund the thing completely. My school property taxes are absolutely obscene and will go even higher because the school district has to fund these unplanned in the local tax base programs. My tax cut has been more than offset by local taxes being raised to offset the lack of federal dollars to local government. At least I can deduct the local property taxes on my federal tax return, then the vicious cycle begins again.

What are my choices? Refuse to pay my property taxes then barricade my house and hole up when they come to sieze it? We all know what happens then.

[Stretch]

Maybe the "root cause" is that the faculty and students are still struggling with what the "meaning of 'is' "is".

[Tribune7]

Bush really did do a good job of picking his cabinet.

Kudos for Rod.