It takes a D.C. school to raise a car jockey

The Washington Times ^ | 8-30-07 | Tom Knott

[JZelle]

It is Back to Dysfunctional Schools Week in the District, where lagging test scores, dwindling enrollment, dilapidated buildings and an incompetence-protecting teachers' union have become the focus of another savior in chief, Michelle A. Rhee.

The city's public school system has been befuddling superintendents since the 1960s, each as committed as the next to uplifting the future car jockeys of America. Now here comes Mrs. Rhee, energetic, full of ideas and ever committed to overhauling the worst darn education money can buy.

Give the city this. It prepares the future car jockeys of America as well as any municipality in the nation, with each car jockey able to identify a parking spot, point it out to seeing-impaired motorists and then guard the car for however many hours are necessary.

This valuable public service prevents automobiles from self-starting and leaving the seeing-impaired owners wheel-less after an important social engagement. Car jockeys provide this utility for a tiny fee that often ends up filling the cash register of the corner liquor store, part of which is funneled back to the city in sales tax.

It is a beautiful process in a city that common sense abandoned long ago. Mrs. Rhee is about to discover that if it takes a village to raise a child, to borrow a phrase from one of America's leading socialists, that child is considerably less likely to become a serious student.

[JZelle]

I believe the District spends more money per pupil than anywhere else in the country.

[caisson71]

And by all the liberal standards of public education, whatever money has been spent IS NOT ENOUGH.

[ClaireSolt]

The only good news I saw was dwindling enrollment.