"Texas Miracle" or lies and the lying liars who tell them...

Since education reform is something both the pResident and I say we believe in, I think it is important to point out that the term apparently means completely different things to the two of us. Check out the NYT (prolly need a registration/subscription) work on exposing the "Texas Miracle" as a fraud. Kevin Drum's site is where it caught my eye - he leads with this from the Times' article:

Robert Kimball, an assistant principal at Sharpstown High School, sat smack in the middle of the "Texas miracle." His poor, mostly minority high school of 1,650 students had a freshman class of 1,000 that dwindled to fewer than 300 students by senior year. And yet — and this is the miracle — not one dropout to report!

The article goes on to note that Mr. Kimball has been reassigned and speculates on his chances of getting axed at the next opportunity. And most importantly, this is what Mr. Bush and his SecEd, Mr. Paige have plugged for being so impressive and good and miraculous and and and... and want us to have everywhere - school admins with great incentive to misrepresent their school's situation, because telling the truth results in funding cuts and shovels full of bad publicity and fabricating brings great praise.



There is a larger pattern here, and it goes far beyond Education Reform...