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Greg Abbott's Education Plan: Teach the Best and Shoot the Rest
By Carol MorganIn Abbott’s case, familiarity breeds contempt. The more we get to know him, the less we like him.
It wasn’t enough that he deemed early childhood education a “waste”. It wasn’t enough that he wants to test four-year-olds, despite the fact that it goes against all scientific study of the developing brain. Instead of expanding access to state-funded early childhood programs, he proposes money to be assigned only to those preschoolers who “deserve” it, based upon rigorous testing. Totally without shame, he defends the state's $200 million in cuts to its early childhood program, despite the plethora of academic research (342 million scholarly articles) proving that early childhood education works.
We should shorten Abbott’s plan to a simple understandable phrase that summarizes its underlying principle: Teach the best and shoot the rest.
If a child fails to show potential at age three or four, then they deserve to be hurled into the great pile of disposable castoffs. At four, Texas politicians and primarily, the testing lobbyists, will decide their future for them. At age four, we will relegate them in advance for a career in shoveling gravel on a hot highway, cleaning houses, mowing yards, or picking crops in South Texas.
It wasn’t enough that he deemed early childhood education a “waste”. It wasn’t enough that he wants to test four-year-olds, despite the fact that it goes against all scientific study of the developing brain. Instead of expanding access to state-funded early childhood programs, he proposes money to be assigned only to those preschoolers who “deserve” it, based upon rigorous testing. Totally without shame, he defends the state's $200 million in cuts to its early childhood program, despite the plethora of academic research (342 million scholarly articles) proving that early childhood education works.
We should shorten Abbott’s plan to a simple understandable phrase that summarizes its underlying principle: Teach the best and shoot the rest.
If a child fails to show potential at age three or four, then they deserve to be hurled into the great pile of disposable castoffs. At four, Texas politicians and primarily, the testing lobbyists, will decide their future for them. At age four, we will relegate them in advance for a career in shoveling gravel on a hot highway, cleaning houses, mowing yards, or picking crops in South Texas.
The complete blog is at http://lubbockonline.com/interact/blog-post/carol-morgan/2014-04-02/greg-abbotts-education-plan-teach-best-and-shoot-rest .
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