Politics: Obama’s speech was good, but public schools need improvement
- You cannot fool all the people all the time, President Lincoln said. And when it comes to student learning, the public seems beyond deceit.
- Wall Street Journal columnist Paul Peterson • Discussing the declining quality of public schools in the wake of Obama’s speech today. He says it’s beyond terrible – graduation rates are lower than they were in 1970, when Kevin Arnold from “The Wonder Years” started at McKinley High. Not only are parents unhappy with education, but they don’t want to spend any more money on schools. 46% don’t support spending more. To give you an idea about how anemic that number is, in 1990 (when Zack Morris was a sophomore at Bayside High), the number was 70%, and last year (when the cast of High School Musical was filled with seniors) that number was 61%. Depressing. • source