Sept. 26, 2006 - 19:55 MDT

ACADEMIC ILLS ?

Seems like the whole world is stepping on its own toes in all directions. An editorial comment in todays Rocky Mountain News tells about educational skullduggery. Quoted in full (Bolds and italics mine) herein:

READING FIRST'S SCANDALOUS UNDERBELLY

"The independent inspector general at the Department of Education did not pull punches in a report on the administration of Reading First, a centerpiece Bush administration intitiative."

"In the years 2002-2003, the program was shot through with political favoritism, conflicts of interest, mismanagement and complaints that program administrators ignored the law in trying force states to select certain favored publishers of textbooks and curriculums. Meanwhile, review panels were stacked with derpartment favorites to ensure that favored conclusions would be reached."

"This is not a small academic tempest in the faculty lounge. The Reading First program has dispensed over $4.8 billion to 1,500 districts."

"The Reading First program has been generally well-received and found to be effective, but this kind of political meddling could quickly turn it toxic with the states and congress. It speaks well that the department's own inspector general was the first to blow the whistle."

"The grossest abuses took place before the current secretary, Margaret Spellings, took over, and she quickly promised to adopt all the recommendations. That's fine, but the scandal overall is extremely disturbing given the still EXPANDING federal role in education."

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So just what kind of education can we expect for our young people ?

Seems to me that young people have been at the mercy of school boards nationwide, school boards which favor sports above everything. School boards who get into the act about the "evolution revolution" in knee jerk mode.

I see no mention of the administrators who twisted the procedure out of whack being punished. I think they should be.

With our government getting into the act with their programs and the folks administering the same one would expect the whole operation to be "as pure as the driven snow" -- but it would seem that the snow has been driven through corruption, favoritism and stacked review panels.

"Ring around the collar" driven snow it appears to me. Leaves me with a foul taste in my mouth and mind, it does.

Can there be a cure for our ACADEMIC ILLS ? . . . . . . . . . . . .

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