Submitted by Robert J. Vecci, Jan 16, 2007 13:09

An excerpt from this article reads as follows: "A spokesman, David Cantor, said in a statement that $40 million a year is going toward 'academic interventions' and to 'improve instruction' in middle schools, while failing schools are being closed and new smaller 'learning communities' created to foster social and instructional cohesiveness." With all of this money going to creating learning communities, which is probably an unproven experimental program at best, there appears to be an economic incentive for the special instructors needed to staff these institutions. Given that there will be more jobs for under-achieving public sector employees if academic mediocrity continues, there does not appear to be any incentive to promote excellence in what once was the best public school system in the country. The objective is to educate the children; not to provide additional public sector jobs with union and civil service protection.

Note: Comments are screened, and in some cases edited, before posting. We reserve the right to reject anything we find objectionable.