Who wrote her speech?

It's a good show, but the chief trouble with the current structure is that _both_ schools and parents can say their position is made hopeless by the failures. Blaming just the teachers won't fix anything, because far too many parents do far too little.

We don't have any effective way of sorting the lousy teachers and indifferent parents, and we still won't if we reform tenure or link teacher pay to "performance".

That is the importance of vouchers. Let parents sort the good schools from the bad. At first they'll be lousy at it, but some will do okay and there will be some good schools. But those schools won't take parents who don't do their part. Without the excuse of lousy schools, parents who aren't doing enough will have to do what's needed to get their kid into a good school. And then there will be more good schools, and less excuse for not having your kids in one, and we'll start to get where we need to go.

The truly sad thing is that a lot of these parents really think they are doing what they should be doing. Who dares tell them otherwise? Cosby tried, and look how he was treated.

The Governor will score a lot of points bashing the teachers' unions, and Lord knows they deserve it. But nothing will be fixed if he stops there.

Very moving.

Please note, all you conservatives (of which I am one) this is an outstanding example of the flaw in the argument "block grant the money to the states and let the local governments spend it where it NEEDS to be spent."

The local governments will spend it where the local politicians and local government workers WANT it to be spent, which is on the local politicians pet projects and the local government workers.

Anything that is actually spent on the people for whom or project for which it was granted to be spent is the merest trickle of the block grant.

I experienced this trying to get my local state to spend its block granted money on adjustment to blindness training for one of my children.

Here's an idea, quit taxing us to the point where we are unable to do for ourselves or help our neighbors. Let us KEEP our money and spend it where it needs to be spent.

I think there is a cyclical and dialectical relationship between parents and teachers that has been worked out in our culture for a very long time. I was taught to read, among many other things, before I went to first grade. Immediately, a note arrived telling my parents that the teachers were the professionals and they were not to be teaching me anything. In short my parents were told to butt out, which within a year earned me a trip to Catholic School for the duration (thankfully). Teachers today want parental involvement only when and how they want it. Otherwise you will be told to butt out. That is what you get when you have a state run monopoly. So, I am not sure that pulling this corrupt system out by the roots is enough. Obama wants us to be Europe. But I would tell him that some European countries have no problem with sending kids to the best schools with vouchers provided by taxpayer funds. Government schools are parasites on the backs of private schools because in our system, parents pay the state NOT to educate their child, and they still cannot educate what is left. The argument that the state schools have to take everybody including dyslexic kids is a stupid argument because of the numbers of kids NOT even being educated by the system. Government schools are the most pernicious monopoly in the country to the detriment of all of the Chill-dren at the mercy of greedy teachers unions. Enough.

The Wire was in Maryland

I knew one day conservatives and the MSM would pass the McCain torch of Mavrick-ness onto someone new. Looks like that day has come.

I'm having problems with eyeblast at work. Can anyone find a link to this on youtube?

O.k., I don't know where my brain was when I put Baltimore in New Jersey. I apologize to citizens of both....

That was a near perfect answer. Brilliant. He's a natural communicator with voters and reminds me of Bill Clinton in his ability to sympathize with the woman but remain tough sounding at the same time. And to those who say Christie was wrong to say it's not the parents' fault, to an extent you're right that a lot of educational failure has to do with parents, but it was politically wise of Christie not to talk about that because it would sound as if he was blaming the woman in front of him. Also, it's not the governor's job to get parents to change their behavior. He's not responsible for that. But he is responsible for the school system and he was smart to stick to criticizing them. As I said, it was a brilliant response.