DEMOCRATS’ FAILURE FACTORIES

[Geee]

Human Events:

Teachers unions supply the Democratic Party with money and foot soldiers. But if Democrats intend to make income inequality their issue in 2014 and 2016, they will have to give up their slavish devotion to these unions, which deny inner-city kids a shot at a quality education and an escape route from poverty.

 

A few Democrats, such as former Newark Mayor Cory Booker and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, have challenged union power, but not New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Anyone eyeing Cuomo as the backup candidate for president in 2016, in the event Hillary Clinton doesn’t run, needs to take a look at his failed record on school reform.

 

New Yorkers are fleeing the upstate region’s moribund economy and moving to states with more jobs, fewer taxes and job-killing regulations. But inner-city school kids in Rochester, Syracuse and Buffalo aren’t going anywhere. Despite the phrase “no child left behind,” that’s exactly what they are: kids left behind. They are victims of Cuomo’s indifference to school failure and the greed of teachers unions.

[Geee]

EARLY RESULTS INDICATE $4.6 BILLION IN SCHOOL TURNAROUNDS A WASTE

 

A $4.6 billion federal school improvement program aimed at the bottom 5 percent of U.S. schools has at best done nothing for them, and at worst spent money as some schools worsened, new federal data show.

 

The U.S. Department of Education released a report Nov. 21, comparing average proficiency rates of School Improvement Grant (S(G) schools in 2011-2012 to the year prior. Although some schools’ academic performance improved, many worsened.

 

“SIG is almost certainly going to go down as one of the U.S. Department of Education’s biggest and most expensive mistakes—possibly the biggest,” said Andy Smarick, a partner at Bellwether Education Partners. “Schools are getting millions and we’re just not seeing anything close to the gains that were promised and are needed.”

http://www.humanevents.com/2014/01/22/early-results-indicate-4-6-billion-in-school-turnarounds-a-waste/