But if we did, you can bet that the people in charge would be falling all over themselves to find a solution as quickly as possible, rather than consigning countless youngsters to a marginal future. Then again, we aren't talking about a perfect world. Of course, the news about education in Tennessee has been so bad for so long that one might be forgiven for feeling a little numb upon hearing one more piece of it. Not in a society and an economy where knowledge is increasingly crucial. But numbness is one thing.
Immobilization is quite another.
And the latter, sadly but not surprisingly, is how some Tennessee lawmakers seem to be reacting to Gov. Don Sundquist's proposal for doing something about the problem. Not all of them, mind you. Some are even championing the idea. But how it came about may be far less of a surprise. The fact that reading is a serious problem in Tennessee schools clearly wasn't in dispute.