Different Meeting, Same Lies

From the Citizen-Patriot:

. . . . In attempting to dispel myths about the six-year-old school accountability law, Spellings told educations writers Thursday that NCLB is "not an unfunded mandate" or a one size fits all program.

"It's not a mandate at all," Spellings said, noting that the states set the standards. "It is not a one size fits all federal prescription."

But if state's don't got along with the law, they lose federal funding. So it's a do-this-or-we'll-shut-off-the-valve mandate?

The only mandate, Spellings said, is that Michigan and other states must produce test data and get every child at grade level by 2014.

She also said the federal law does not force teachers to teach to the MEAP test. She went on to defend that practice, though.

"There's not a thing wrong with teaching to the test," Spellings said last night during a Q&A at the Education Writers Association conference in Los Angeles that I'm attending.

Spellings added that teachers have been teaching to tests since the days of Greek philosopher Socrates.

This is the top education official in America. If it were not so embarrassing and scary, it might even be funny. Socrates considered the wise person the one who knows the extent of her own ignorance. Not a chance!