Scanning the front page of the NY Times this morning, I saw a "squib" at the bottom of the page that said "Poor Report Card on Schools: A report gives most states low grades on public school policies.page A10"
"I wonder what report that is," I thought -- "a government commission; maybe an independent analysis of all the states." And what policies? Guns? Testing? Dress Codes?
As a former teacher and supervisor, and opponent of the current war on public schools, I turned to page 10 of the Times, and saw the headline, 12 States Get Failing Grades on Public School Policies. Oh, so it wasn't "most states," it was most of 12 states surveyed.
Then I looked at the photo, and saw Michelle Rhee, former DC Superintendent of Schools and current anti-public schools grifter. It seems that Ms. Rhee's current scam, "StudentsFirst" "rated" 12 states on Ms. Rhee's criteria -- merit pay, teacher evaluations, etc. There were no "A's." The highest scores were LA and FL, which got "B-." NY, NJ and others got "F's".
"Well, that's interesting," I thought. "I wonder who else gives grades to schools, and Google led me to Education Week's ranking for 2012. There, LA and FL got "C+" and NY and NJ got "B" and "B-" respectively.
The media, including the Times, constantly puts a negative cast on any school results, and bolsters grifters like Rhee by according them credibility, like the charade of a front page headline implying that this was some kind of independent study. Although the article gives lip service to Rhee critics, its placement and headline ascribe infinitely more credibility than Rhee deserves.