If we feel education needs reform, let's start at the top. The Republicans keep hanging on to the "trickle down" model in economic policy. If there is anything to it, then we need to be careful about what trickles down from the Department of Education and its eminently stupid capo, Rod Paige. Take a look at this report from the New York Times from February 25, 2004:

Rod Paige, the education secretary, made a staggeringly stupid comment this week, comparing the nation's largest teachers' union to a "terrorist organization" because it opposes many elements of the two-year-old No Child Left Behind Act. This is the latest in a series of missteps by Mr. Paige.

Given the fact that it's Paige about whom we are talking, that's not so amazing.
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