Education Reformers ignore poverty except when it gives them cover

 Education reformers are well known for saying poverty is an excuse… except when it gives them cover. Ron Mattus writing about Florida’s poor showing in the PISA in Jeb Bush’s blog wrote:

 Florida students scored 467 in math, 485 in science and 492 in reading, far below Massachusetts (at 514, 527 and 527, respectively) and Connecticut (at 506, 521 and 521 respectively). It’s worth noting that Florida has a far higher percentage of low-income students, 56 percent, compared to 34.2 percent for Massachusetts and 34.5 percent for Connecticut. –

http://www.redefinedonline.org/2013/12/floridas-academic-gains-still-arent-good-enough-

There you have it, poverty is an excuse except when it explains their failure.

My grandmother would call it chutzpah. My psychology professors would call it cognitive dissonance. I just call it plain wrong and it is time we said enough is enough