DISAGGREGATING THE LEGACY:

Bush leaves gift of education reform behind (RICHARD WHITMIRE, 1/15/09, Politico)

I wasn’t alone in noticing the potential of accountability by the numbers. Then-Gov. George W. Bush, who inherited that system, noticed it as well, inspiring him to make school reform the stuffing inside his “compassionate conservatism” theme in the 2000 presidential election. Surely you have not forgotten the “bigotry of low expectations.” Among soccer moms, that bumped up Bush on the comfort-level meter just enough to neutralize the traditional 15-to-20-point advantage Democrats traditionally enjoy on education issues. The rest is history.

Cynics assumed the Republican school reform rhetoric would quickly evaporate, but once in Washington, Bush shocked House conservatives by promptly acting on his campaign pledge. (Then-Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) once confessed to Rush Limbaugh his distaste for supporting Bush education reforms, saying that abolishing the Department of Education was his true preference.) Bush, however, didn’t need their support. Once he convinced key liberals such as Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Education Trust’s Kati Haycock that he believed education reform was the new frontier in the civil rights struggle, a bipartisan effort then produced No Child Left Behind, the education law signed on January 2002. NCLB was a mirror image of what I saw in Houston that day.

The law judges schools by the job they do for all children, not just the easy-to-teach children. Suddenly, hundreds of schools that had been hiding their failures to teach poor and minority students behind school averages were outed, which was appropriate. That brand of school accountability, known to education insiders as disaggregated data, is not just George W. Bush’s education legacy; it’s the jewel of any domestic achievement. Over time, I’m guessing, it will trump any overseas accomplishments, such as ramping up the AIDS fight in Africa.

The most predictable aspect of the coming reconsideration of George W. Bush will be looking at him as a CEO.

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Posted by Orrin Judd at January 15, 2009 8:25 AM