Candidates' Performance at NEA Fails

A supporter of Strong American Schools with another skewering of the Dems:

The report card is in. All of the major Democrats and one  Republican presidential candidate auditioned in front of the National  Education Association (NEA) at their annual conference in Philadelphia last  week. While there, both the candidates and educators were given a spotlight to  draw attention and focus to the substantial problems facing education reform  in this country. However, at the end of the week, the overall performance  rated an F.
 
 

Last week was a lost opportunity. For the most part,  candidates showed up in Philly reciting back the position papers their policy  analysts had gathered off the NEA website, instead of offering innovative and  bold plans to challenge the status quo. It was also a lost opportunity for the  NEA to raise the bar, as delegates let candidates get away with speeches that  sounded empty and designed to appease with applause lines and slogans, instead  of confronting the real problems in our schools.
 

Instead of seizing the moment, too many candidates spent too  much time seeking the gratification of the delegates. But by doing so, most  failed miserably. Just consider: In Philadelphia, where nearly half the  students don't graduate from high school and about two-thirds of African  American and Latino students aren't proficient in reading and math, a speech  that ignores the crisis in K-12 education is like a history textbook that  skips WWII: it's incomplete.
 

At a convention attended by educators from all fifty states,  where was the outrage that the national high school graduation rate is only  70%? Where was the concern that American math students rank 24th out of 29  countries, or that nine out of ten black 8th graders don't read above a  proficient level?
 

If you listened to the candidates -- Republicans and Democrats  -- NCLB is the cause for all that is wrong with K-12 education, but that  simply not the case. Whether you support NCLB or not, the problems we face in  providing a quality education for all students are too big to be solved a  small-minded blame game.

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Marc Lampkin
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marc-lampkin> | BIO <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marc-lampkin/#blogger_bio>

Candidates' Performance at NEA Fails the Test
Posted July 9, 2007 | 01:57 PM (EST)

The report card is in. All of the major Democrats and one Republican presidential candidate auditioned in front of the National Education Association (NEA) at their annual conference in Philadelphia last week. While there, both the candidates and educators were given a spotlight to draw attention and focus to the substantial problems facing education reform in this country. However, at the end of the week, the overall performance rated an F.