See, The Thing Is...

This was a highlight for me last night:

In neighborhoods across our country, there are boys and girls with dreams, and a decent education is their only hope of achieving them. Six years ago, we came together to pass the No Child Left Behind Act, and today no one can deny its results. Last year, fourth and eighth graders achieved the highest math scores on record. Reading scores are on the rise. African-American and Hispanic students posted all- time highs. Now we must — Now we must work together to increase accountability, add flexibilities for states and districts, reduce the number of high school dropouts, provide extra help for struggling schools.

Members of Congress, the No Child Left Behind Act is a bipartisan achievement. It is succeeding. And we owe it to America’s children, their parents, and their teachers to strengthen this good law.

Ok.

The thing is, it's not succeeding because a lot of children are being left behind. And the ones being left behind are the ones who need the most help.

After the President was finished making up this part of the speech, he then went on to discuss a voucher program he instituted in Washington DC. He then went on to discuss the need to funnel tax dollars into private (aka, religious) schools, since it's supposedly working in DC.

It makes you wonder: maybe the White House wants the bottom 20-25% to fail (I believe they do) miserably, so they can get these parents on board with their plans to privatize education. If parents see their children failing, they'll want an option, and that option is privatization. That's the trick, and I've been saying it for years.