The AP tells us that the White House reaches out to DC’s troubled schools
Education Secretary Arne Duncan said the White House is reaching out to support the efforts of Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and schools superintendent Michelle Rhee, who are taking aggressive steps to turn around Washington’s struggling schools.
“For far too long, D.C. schools have not been a shining example,” said Duncan, referring to low test scores, decaying facilities and other long-running problems. “Things are now going in the right direction.”
This is only partially true. The administration appears to have conspired to kill a popular and successful voucher program in the District, all while proposing a national increase in charters. The Department of Education withheld evidence of the program’s success.
This program’s popularity notwithstanding, Obama stayed silent as Congress scheduled this initiative’s demise after the 2009-2010 academic year.
Now it emerges that Obama’s Department of Education (DOE) possessed peer-reviewed, congressionally mandated, research proving this program’s success. Though it demonstrates “what works for the kids,” DOE hid this study until Congress squelched these children’s dreams.
This analysis compared voucher users’ test scores to those of students who requested vouchers but lost the award lottery. It found that while they were no better at math, voucher recipients read 3.7 months ahead of non-voucher students.
DOE researchers reportedly were forbidden to publicize or discuss their findings. “You’d think we were talking about nuclear secrets, not about a taxpayer-funded pilot program,” the April 5 Wall Street Journal wrote.
In other words, “We’ll change the norm, but not too quickly, and not in our backyard.” Ugly.