The ongoing bankruptcy known as unionized public school education has reached a new milestone. In Atlanta, 178 teachers and principals spread throughout 56 schools were investigated, and cheating on tests — by the educators themselves — was confirmed in 44 of them. So far, 82 of the people entrusted with the education of children have confessed to erasing wrong answers on standardized test and inserting right ones. Are these reprobates the focus of corruption? Don't be silly. "We have a terrible federal law called No Child Left Behind that says that all schools have to have 100 percent of their students proficient in reading in math by the year 2014 or their schools will be shut down," said Educator Diane Ravitch.
Imagine the outrage of having to have every child in an American public school "proficient" in reading or math. The italics surrounding the word proficient are there for a reason. In many public school systems across the country proficiency, aka a passing grade, has become a cruel joke. Grades are routinely inflated to give the appearance of passing, even when children remain functionally illiterate and innumerate as a result.
In New York, teachers and administrators earned $100 million in bonuses based on a dramatic improvement in test scores
Why? In New York, teachers and administrators earned $100 million in bonuses based on a dramatic improvement in test scores. What could explain such dramatic improvement? Try this from the NY Post: "In 2006, third-graders needed 17 out of 38 points on the math test, or 45 percent, to pass. Three years later, those taking the test needed just 11 points out of 39, or 28 percent."
What happened when the same kids took a state-wide test in 2010 after "years of soaring test results?" Try this from the NY Daily News: "Only 54% of third- through eighth-graders passed state math tests this year, compared with 82% the year before, a shocking decline of 28 percentage points. Reading scores dropped 27 points, from 69% in the 2008-2009 school year to only 42%. The declines, which erase nearly all the gains city kids have made in the past four years, come in the wake of a state-commissioned study that found the high-stakes exams had become easier to pass."
Easier to pass? How about bordering on moronically easy to pass? Just as importantly, how much of that $100 million in bogus bonus money was taken back? Zero. How many people were prosecuted for educational fraud? Zero. Thus the real question about cooking grades or even the outright cheating engaged in by the educrats in Atlanta isn't why.
It's why not?
The proverbial proof is in the pudding. In 2009, Superintendent Beverly Hall, who retired in June was named Superintendent of the Year. And in keeping with the prevailing public service employee mindset, she acknowledged wrongdoing in the system during her farewell address — and promptly placed the blame on other administrators. The administrator themselves? Thugs. According to the report on the scandal, not only did these thugs "repeatedly refused to properly investigate or take responsibility for the cheating," they told principals not to cooperate with investigators. On top of that, teachers who had the courage to bring the cheating to the attention of their supervisors were labeled as malcontents, bullied, or, in the case of Paul Landerman, a teacher who witnessed a colleague helping 50 students change test answers, fired for reporting what he saw.
Now that the heat is on, the interim superintendent has promised that those responsible for cheating or covering up the scandal "will not work in an Atlanta classroom again." Not good enough. The state of Georgia has a law that makes altering a government document a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison. A test is considered a government document. The bet here is none of these people will see a day in prison, but I have a modest suggestion: strip every one of these people of their pensions. In other words, consign them to the same type of questionable futures to which they have consigned thousands of Atlanta schoolchildren. If they dare to file a grievance with their union, tell them the aforementioned felony charge awaits.
In the larger context, it should be noted that the Atlanta scandal is by no means an isolated event. Baltimore, Houston and Detroit have also been embroiled in cheating scandals to a lesser degree. And who's kidding whom? What we're talking about here is the people who have been caught. Who knows how many other schools are engaged in outright cheating — or the kind of subversive grade inflation that amounts to the same thing?
De-union public schools
For years I have advocated de-unionizing public schools for the simplest of reasons: the existence of unions is predicated on promoting and protecting the interests of its members, period. Anyone or anything that threatens those interests, even children, will be tossed under the educational bus in pursuit of that agenda. Anyone who thinks otherwise is an utter fool. And that goes double for anyone who thinks a Democrat party joined at the hip to unions who provide them with millions of dollars in campaign donations is looking out for the interests of parents and their children. In any reasonable country, a political party that would use innocent children as pawns to further their own ends would be nationally ostracized.
That they are not is a testament to this unholy alliance's effectiveness in dumbing down a substantial portion of the nation. Far too many Americans fail to recognize the monstrosity of a party and their union enablers whose slogan, "for the children" is the epitome of Orwellian double-speak. What other nation would routinely tolerate teachers and principals cheating on tests? Or their apologists blaming the tests themselves for putting too much pressure on these bums? The "impact of high-stakes testing?" Spare me. And spare me the utter bankruptcy of the excuse that the only solution is to "teach the test." That excuse is a testament to the lack of innovation and imagination that permeates the modern-day public school bureaucracy. It is a testament to the kind of punch-the-clock, it's not my job, don't give damn, by the rule-book attitude that forms the basis of modern-day unionism.
Toss in the kind of hate-filled union demonstration the nation witnessed in Wisconsin, aided and abetted by a Democrat party willing to subvert the democratic process itself by fleeing the state, and a hack judge also willing to undo the will of the voter, and you've got the perfect storm of coordinated thuggery that makes holding these people accountable a Herculean task.
Bottom line for the umpteenth time: we will never be the nation we are capable of being until this particular model for educating the nation's children is blown up. Not reformed, not modified. Blown up.
Organized cheating by the adults in charge, my fellow Americans. It doesn't get any lower than that.
