Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Only 34 percent of Americans give President Obama an A, or even a B, for his support of public schools, says an Aug. 25 Christian Science Monitor story reporting on a public opinion survey on education. That 34 percent has dropped from 45 percent a year ago, despite administration spending of more than $100 billion on k-12 education. Proof, as history shows, that money for education isn’t what makes kids smart. The opinion survey was conducted by Phi Delta Kappa (PDK) and Gallup. Support was “slim” for the “drastic school turnaround strategies” favored by Education Secretary Arne Duncan. They involve closing 5,000 schools and firing teaching staffs that don’t perform. Duncan has called on the NAACP for leadership in the program.