BUSH'S COURT JESTER

The Houston Chronicle reporting on Secretary of Education Rod Paige's legacy as Superintendent of the Houston Independent School District:

"As far as I'm concerned, he walks on water, snow and weak bridges," said Alma Allen, a Houston member of the State Board of Education. "For a black man to achieve what he has achieved, he has to. He politically can lay claim to all that's going on in education."

But the dropout controversy and the reappearance of the achievement gap have sparked criticism that Paige created a boiler-room, no-excuses atmosphere that effectively forced employees to massage scores and statistics.

Teachers say pressure and performance-based bonuses encouraged corner-cutting. But Paige's defenders counter that dishonest reporting by administrators at substandard schools is only an unintended consequence of otherwise successful reforms.

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"Otherwise successful reforms." In a pigs eye.

The public schools are a racket. Designed more for warehousing than educating, individual schools only perform well when a certain critical mass of local parents insists that both their children and teachers perform well. Without that vital component, schools simply go through the motions, sending out numerical messages of educational success for the political class to use in their endless drive to stay in office--this is not to say that schools don't perform their hidden, true function, indoctrinating children into the culture of authority and obedience; this is one area where the public schools thrive.

In other words, if a child has well educated, highly motivated parents who live in a neighborhood with like-minded individuals, that child will be educated. Otherwise, it's a crapshoot. In fact, studies have shown a high correlation between family income and SAT scores. Until this issue is addressed, the public debate about education is just a silly dance.

"No Child Left Behind" is a joke. Rod Paige is the court jester.

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