Rod Paige on a Rampage

Houston Chronicle - Education Secretary Rod Paige called the nation's largest teachers union a "terrorist organization," taking on the 2.7-million-member National Education Association early in the presidential election year.

Later the White House issues an apology: "The secretary realized he made an inappropriate comment and he has quickly apologized."

NEA Calls for Paige's Resignation

PAIGE CONSISTENTLY QUESTIONS THE VALUES OF PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS

Last April, Paige said, "The reason that Christian schools and Christian universities are growing is a result of a strong value system... That's not the case in a public school, where there are so many different kids with different kinds of values."

Paige issued an "apology" saying his comment was "an inappropriate choice of words to describe the obstructionist scare tactics that the NEA's Washington lobbyists have employed against No Child Left Behind's historic education reform." In his apology Paige also accused the NEA of "fighting against bringing real, rock-solid improvements in the way we educate all our children." Paige's outrageous comments, and his subsequent "apology," raise an important question: are there legitimate criticisms of the NCLB program?

The broad goal of the NCLB program – to have all students meet a minimum standard of proficiency in core subjects – is laudable. But requiring schools to meet federally mandated standards, while pulling federal funding from those who don't [el - and inadequate funding to start with], the Administration is not providing schools with the resources to get the job done. For example, the superintendent largest school district in Utah estimates that "he will have to spend $182 million over the next 10 years to implement all the provisions of NCLB" and currently receives only $2.2 million a year in Title I federal education funding.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that a recent study shows that NCLB will soon cost $1.5 billion a year for Ohio to implement, but that state receives just $44 million in federal education funds. William Mathis, the superintendent of a Vermont district and an education finance professor at the University of Vermont called the $1.5 billion figure for NCLB implementation "actually low." Mathis added "it is an inescapable conclusion that No Child Left Behind is severely underfunded."

The lack of funding of NCLB is forcing schools to skimp on some education programs to pay for others. The WSJ reports, "gifted-education services are being cut because districts want to concentrate resources on raising lower-achieving students." At the same time, schools are hoarding high achievers who can help schools meet their NCLB goals. The result: "some educators discourage their best students from leaving, either by failing to nominate them for gifted programs, or by telling parents their children would be better off in the neighborhood schools."

Back in Arizona, a group of bipartisan legislators introduced House Bill 2696, which would stop the state from complying with the act. Gov. Napolitano is against that bill. A dozen other states are threatening to pass similar legislation. Lawmakers say there is not enough money in Washington, D.C., or the states to pay for the federal demands on students and teachers.

With his No Child Left Behind program increasingly under attack Ron Paige is turning to pushing vouchers.

Paige said the D.C. voucher program, the first of its kind to be supported by federal tax dollars, will offer "emancipation" to hundreds of poor and minority students.

He said the program that gets under way in the fall will allow those students to "throw off the chains of a school system that has not served them well."

The $13 million plan creates vouchers for at least 1,700 poor students in the nation's capital, where 65,000 children attend classes in traditional public schools.

Paige's comments reflect the latest push by the Bush administration to frame vouchers as a way to empower parents and spur competition in a public educational "monopoly." Bush is proposing $50 million for voucher programs in other communities in the next budget year.

Critics say vouchers take money from the place it is needed the most, struggling public schools, and find it galling that the education secretary helps lead the charge.