Posted on 02/25/2004 10:17:52 PM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige is frustrated with teachers union officials and their opposition to the education reform legislation known as No Child Left Behind. But Paige's comparison of the National Education Association to a "terrorist organization" was uncalled for and further tarnished the lackluster reputation he has established as the nation's top education administrator.
Paige made his remark in a Monday meeting with governors.
There's no denying Paige's passionate support for Bush's education agenda, but opposing the president's policy is no act of terrorism -- except maybe in a dictatorship. By maligning the NEA with an inflammatory label, Paige strengthened his critics' hand and weakened the administration's. He certainly did nothing to advance public education.
Paige has brooked no criticism of the 2-year-old legislation. He charged the NEA with encouraging a "coalition of the whining." He called other education reform critics "nihilists" and made unflattering comparisons to French U.N. diplomats and racists. Paige impoliticly suggested last year that schools with a religious environment were preferable to public schools with diverse values.
In Houston, Paige was a competent superintendent. He has shown himself less capable in his Washington post.
The teachers unions say no -- and the teachers unions are the 800-pound gorilla of the Democratic Party, whom they supply with money and with people to walk the precincts on election days. Some Republicans are also afraid to get on the bad side of the teachers union, even if that means watching another whole generation of poor kids go down the drain for lack of a decent education.
Among the parents who have not been intimidated is a black woman named Virginia Walden-Ford. She has not only confronted members of Congress in hearings, her organization of parents has taken out ads in the states represented by Congressmen who voted against vouchers.***
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