Gail Collins wants preschool education!

THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

Here’s where the problem comes in: Gail Collins wrote a real column today. She wrote about Obama’s proposal for expanded preschool education.

Almost surely, it won’t happen. This passage helps us see why:

COLLINS (6/6/13): I am telling you all this because nothing major is going to happen for early-childhood education without an enormous groundswell of public demand. This is a cause that’s extremely popular in theory. But its advocates have no power to reward or punish. Lawmakers who labor on behalf of preschool programs may get stars in heaven, but they don’t get squat in campaign contributions. And the ones who eliminate money for infant care programs have no fear whatsoever that they’ll lose an election over it.

Will we see “an enormous groundswell of public demand” for early-childhood education? Presumably not.

Here’s why:

The entire country has been brainwashed into the belief that we’re suffering an educational decline. In fact, test scores are way up on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (the NAEP), the widely-praised gold standard of educational testing.

How much improvement has been recorded? As of 2007, black fourth-graders were scoring as high in math as white fourth-graders were scoring when Bill Clinton became president.

That represents astonishing progress in a short amount of time—and absolutely no one in the country has heard about it. Instead, the entire country has been told that we’re in a gruesome decline. And people who think that schools don’t work aren’t likely to stage an aggressive campaign in favor of even more schooling.

Why does everyone think we’re in a vast educational decline? Largely due to a propaganda campaign from the “education reform” movement.

Some people who stage this campaign may have lofty motives. Others are trying to turn a profit through privatization ventures.

Some are trying to destroy the labor movement through attacks on teachers and their infernal unions. But whatever the blend of motives may be, the entire country has been brainwashed, as we saw this week.

It was astounding to see the reaction to Tuesday morning’s Q-and-A between the Washington Post’s Mary Jordan and Mississippi governor Phil Bryant. (For Tuesday's initial report, click this.) Jordan, who once won a Pulitzer Prize, seems to have the mistaken idea that we’re in a bad educational decline.

But then, so did each of the three governors who responded to her question. So did an education writer at the Washington Post; a life style writer at Salon; and three major cable hosts, including Rachel Maddow. (For yesterday's report, click here.)

Test scores are way up on the NAEP. But thanks to the propaganda of people like Michelle Rhee, no one in the country knows it, including our liberal heroes.

How clueless are progressive leaders concerning public schools? Tomorrow, we’ll walk you through the recent piece at Salon by progressive writer David Sirota.

Sirota seems depressingly clueless about the current state of the schools. When progressives can’t even share the good news about our public schools, no one in the country is ever going to hear it.

At the present time, our benighted nation may boast the world's dumbest collection of adults. Because we adults are so dense, low-income 3-year-old children aren't likely to see expanded preschool opportunities.

In part because of Collins' past writing, everyone in the country is sure that our teachers can’t do anything right. Why would people stand in line to demand even more of that?

Tomorrow: Sirota on schools

Visit our incomparable archives: Even the brightest college kid in the country has been brainwashed about the state of the public schools.

To depress yourself completely, go ahead—just click here.