1115.org

How about education…

So the Prez’s boasting about Texas’ education programs on the campaign trail was full of lies.
Shocking, I know. But this one is way out of hand. Read the full story here.

…the Houston Independent School District — showcase of the “Texas educational miracle” that President Bush has touted as a model for the rest of the nation — is fending off accusations that it inflated its achievements through fuzzy math.

I’m really getting bullshit fatigue here, but this is just too big to pass up.

It’s got it all: Campaign promises unfulfilled, an incompetent political hack elevated to a Cabinet position, and accounting that would make Enron, WorldCom and Tyco blush.

At the center of the controversy is the former Houston school superintendent and current Secretary of Education Rod Paige. Paige is the hack behind Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” program.

Don’t worry son, reading ain’t so important.

Houston school officials have been systematically both dropping requirements and altering dropout statistics to improve graduation rates and standardized test scores.

An investigation by state auditors showed that at least 14 other Houston high schools, including Austin, reported unusually low dropout rates in 2000-2001, although there is no evidence administrators falsified data. By reporting a dropout rate of less than 0.5 percent, school principals increase their chances of winning bonuses of as much as $10,000 and earning top accountability ratings for their campuses.

One way the school administrators manipulated the data was by holding students back repeatedly in the 9th grade, thus preventing them from taking the standardized tests. The ratio of 9th graders to 12th graders in Houston schools is 2.5 to 1, while the average for Texas as a whole is 1.6 to 1.

Sounds like a lot of children in Houston are getting left behind.