reality-based educator

Preznut Bush held an education photo op yesterday with Mayor Moneybags, Uncle Joel Klein, First Lady Laura Bush and a bunch of New York City school kids.

Bush extolled his record as "Education President" and demanded the Congress extend the No Child Left Behind law.

Bush said the recently released results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress tests that showed fourth and eighth grade math scores rising between 2003 and 2005 prove that NCLB is working.

Here's how Bushie put it:

"As yesterday's positive report card shows, childrens do learn when standards are high and results are measured."

Yes, the childrens sure do learn when standards and measured results are added to the system!

And just in case you think Bush made a mistake when he said the word childrens, he followed up with this statement:

"Congress needs to work with this administration to pass legislation that helps gives (sic) our children the education they deserve."

Keith Olbermann reported last night on Countdown that the White House scrubbed the grammatical errors from the transcript of the event to make Bushie sound both articulate and grammatical.

That's one way to have high standards!

Make the mistakes, then erase them like they never happened.

Kinda like he's tried to do with the Iraq war, Katrina, the budget deficit, global warming...

Remember, accountability is only for other people.

Mayor Moneybags and Uncle Joel Klein, despite being members of different parties from Preznut Bush, hold similar views about accountability and standards.

As Bushie said yesterday about Mayor Moneybags:

"The mayor is a no-nonsense guy who understands that if you set a goal, you expect to see results in achieving that goal...He knows how to ask tough questions and he's pretty good about moving aside bureaucracy that will inhibit the people he has selected to achieve the goal."

Sure, that's one way of looking at the mayor's record on education.

Another would be to note how the mayor has continually reorganized the New York City public school system because his reform program hasn't worked, yet he refuses to accept accountability for the changes he has brought about because he says the reforms are not all in place yet.

Of course the reforms will never all be in place because Moneybags is constantly changing them so that he never has to be held accountable to those high standards he and Klein and Bushie have for others.

It's kinda like when the White House press office scrubs the transcript of Preznut Bush's mistakes and makes believe they never happened.

The lesson for our childrens is quite simple - accountability is for other people.