On Sep 7, 2006, at 2:46 PM, gbracey1@verizon.net wrote:
"This is one of the most amazing reality denials I've seen in a long time. Roy Romer tells Clint Bolick (see Four Million Children Left Behind) something simple and compelling and Clint rolls right over it as if it weren't there.
"Not to mention that he accepts unquestioning that every school that NCLB says is a "failing school" is failing. Recall that if any subgroup fails for two years the entire school fails. Most schools have 37 subgroups, California 40-something.
"If Clint had show the same analytic acumen arguing the Cleveland voucher case, it would never have gotten to the Supreme Court, much less been rule in Clint's favor."
JB
Jerry,
As much as I recognize your acumen in dealing with many instances of disinformation regarding the schools, most often numbers that lie, in this particular instance you do exactly what you accuse Clint Bolick of doing. You turn a deaf ear to what you are being told. Clint is saying that under NCLB kids in failing Los Angeles schools are to have additional school choices, other better schools out there that they may choose to attend. Now of course, as you point out and as Roy Romer makes clear, there are few "better schools" out there, certainly not enough to meet the need, in a generally failing Los Angeles public school system. As a result doesn't that mean, as Clint Bolick is implying, that we should allow other schools and therefore other choices into the mix, additional charter schools, pilot and magnet schools, but most of all private schools? Clint Bolick is not denying what Roy Romer is saying, but is simply drawing the obvious conclusions from the situation that Romer describes. Now why don't you see that? Might one not say that your refusal to see this is "one of the most amazing reality denials ... seen in a long time."
Brooks
