Still more dismal were the puerile performances of public officials striving to make the rest of us view the results in a positive light. In truth, government standards are more likely to destroy the schools than save them. Begging the question of why a school that hasn't been able to bring fourth-graders up to standard in five years will be able to do so in eight more, the Governor had the gall to demand more money of Colorado taxpayers. Education, he said, not prisons, should be our top funding priority. As the governor undoubtedly knows, education is Colorado's top funding priority.
Prisons often give citizens good value for their money.
Higher standards mean tougher tests, and tougher tests mean lower scores. Colorado has raised the bar. We are reaching for those world-class standards we have spoken of in the past. We are supposed to believe that fourth-graders flunked the test because the standards were difficult. The standards posted on the Colorado Department of Education website are so vague that one cannot tell what the real standards were without seeing the test.