Jeb Bush, Egalitarian

Since Dad29 threatened to ruin Thanksgiving with the news that Jeb Bush was considering a 2012 run, I just thought I'd pass along an item I recently ran across from The American Conservative's @TAC blog:

A longtime friend of mine, the former chairman of the political science department at the University of Illinois, Robert Weissberg, has published a devastating book on the educational industry. In Bad Students, Not Bad Schools (Transaction Publishers, 2010), Weissberg takes apart so many misconceptions about mass education that the reader’s head may be spinning by the end....

Weissberg quotes with searing contempt former Florida governor Jed[sic] Bush, who would not rest content until all high school graduates in his state were in college. Weissberg asks what these students will be doing in college, when their level of mathematical and writing competency is often no higher than that of competent elementary school students.

"Everybody's All American" is not a coherent education policy for a serious candidate. Please keep this in mind as the 2012 horserace starts to heat up.

The Bush note is not the focus of the post, though, and the whole thing is worth a read. From elsewhere:

Weissberg cautions about throwing more good money after what has already been misspent. Let those who want to drop out of high schools go; and let’s try to educate students who are willing and able to learn to become even better. Weissberg does not belittle the uninterested student. He is simply trying to be realistic about what schools can do

Visit the @TAC blog to read the whole thing.