Margaret and the Reading Test

Bush’s Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings is as big a fan of standardized tests as one could find. Just recently, she went on profoundly about how the prospect of yet another set of tests for elementary school students — this time, for spelling [the small 's' version] — made her critics go “wah, wah, wah.”

But recent pronouncements from Spellings and the Department of Education makes one wonder if the Secretary and her brain trust could pass a fourth grade reading test, let alone venture out into her namesake discipline.

Over the summer, the Department issued a new version of its document, “LEA and School Improvement: Non-Regulatory Guidance.” In a transparent effort to give school districts the authority to change the terms of collective bargaining agreements by fiat, the new version asserts that the requirements of NCLB can override collective bargaining agreements.

One might wonder whether Secretary Spellings and her Department of Education braintrust ever read Section 1116(d) of the act. It says:

Nothing in this section shall be construed to alter or otherwise affect the rights, remedies and procedures afforded school or school district employees under Federal, State or local laws (including applicable regulations or court orders) or under the terms of collective bargaining agreements, memoranda of understanding, or other agreements between such employees and their employers.

Yes, this is ’statute talk,’ but of the fairly simple sort that one finds in the First Amendment ["Congress shall make no law..."]. It does not seem that hard to understand: the law does not override collective bargaining agreements.

Unless one has an agenda of attacking teacher unions and collective bargaining.

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