The school superintendents favor lower academic standards and reject professional accountability because they don't believe Delaware students are capable of achieving high standards and they fear they will lose their jobs if their ineffective leadership is exposed. But why Senate Democrats were cowed by the superintendents is a mystery. Surely these seasoned politicians weren't swayed by the tempest the superintendents and local school board members created. The superintendents have managed to arouse a small cadre of parents to protest the new student testing program. This small band of education bureaucrats instilled unwarranted fear of failure in some parents.
Parental fear is a predictable emotion.
The school officials hoped that student accountability would be confused with the educator accountability issue in legislators' minds. Their hopes were realized. A couple of weeks ago, legislators lost focus on professional accountability and, prodded by the superintendents and local school boards, began to second-guess themselves on student accountability, an issue they correctly settled nearly two years ago. The Senate Democratic caucus met Thursday in secret, trying to weaken and delay student accountability. One proposal would have put off holding high school students accountable until 2006.