With most public schools being in the hands of liberals, with teacher unions supporting Democrats more often than not, with academia being more liberal than conservative, and with even Ted Kennedy practically writing "No Child Left Behind,"
Hell, Ten, you'd think we would be turning out Einsteins daily. What could be wrong?
Not enough money, not enough taxes.
Oh, that's it. Of course it is.
In the late 80s, when Texas was starting to boil over about the proposed "Robin Hood" plan (under which wealthy school districts would sacrifice to provide funding for poorer ones), the facts were out that even in poorer districts, academic performance was sometimes BETTER than in the wealthy ones. News articles commonly pointed to these cases (of course, in addition to many cases where poorer districts UNDER-performed, which suggested the correlation between wealth and education wasn't as great as we were being told -- kids COULD get lousy educations in Highland Park just as well as in Laredo).
Now, you can find only about what a great success Robin Hood has been. The stories that it was never about the money in the first place? All gone. Nobody mentions that. "Robin Hood a great success!!" they say. But what OTHER changes occurred in the interim (e.g., under the governorship of GWB?)
Conveniently, those FACTUAL accounts are long-lost. |
