Leave every poor kid behind

I'm sure that by now, everyone's caught wind that the AIMS test is worthless. It actually doesn't measure standards, as its name would suggest, but it convinces a whole bunch of students that they are indeed miserable failures (which, of course, isn't remotely true).

If a school doesn't have a certain percentage of its student body passing the AIMS test for three years in a row, the state takes over the school. Tough talk, but, as it turns out, the state hasn't actually been able to produce better results than those schools were. What was obvious to everyone else should be starting to hit the pit in Tom Horne's stomach right about now, although the buffoon will probably attribute it to the espresso he drank on the way to work this morning. There may be a rise in test scores, but that obviously does not equate to better education. Furthermore, the test scores haven't even risen that much at those schools. Six of the eleven schools that were failing in 2004 are still failing. Have a look.

You can bet those failing schools are poor ones.