What's the problem with schools these days? Well, besides the racial performance gap, the out-of-control employees, and the city government takeovers, they just can't keep their most important stakeholders (the media) happy.

  • A couple years ago Mayor Bloomberg was all, "We've cut the racial gap in schools in half, aren't we the shit?" Now, in 2010, the latest test scores, passing rates dropped by 25%, and blacks and Latinos are testing as proficient roughly half as much as whites and Asians. Sucks for the mayor. (Also for the kids).
  • If you cannot trust school officials, who can you trust? A mom in Queens complained that her special ed son was getting bullied, and then a school official mistakenly left the mom a message intended for a colleague: "Umm, Andy's mother's a piece of s- - -. She hates [principal] Marcy [Berger], she hates you, she hates everybody," starts the message, which then turns to finding a special-education placement for Andy elsewhere." Well, results are what count, right?
  • So it's no wonder mayors everywhere want to take over control of their local school systems. Because mayors love nothing more than assuming unmanageable problems.
  • All of these issues, of course, pale in comparison to the fact that school systems can't seem to coddle the media correctly. In L.A., the teacher's union is calling for a boycott of the LA Times, because they're angry over "a series of articles that uses student test scores to estimate the effectiveness of district teachers." One, who reads the LA Times? Two, you need the LA Times on your side! Desist at once! The liberal media and the liberal teachers unions must stick together in a tight-knit liberal cabal!

You can't make school systems educate kids properly, but at least you can give em a decent image. Funding is everything.
[Pic via]