GOOD SPEECH - AT 8:21 A.M. ET:  President Obama spoke about education yesterday, and we must concede that it was a solid speech, with ideas that conservatives could applaud:

President Barack Obama remains in exceptionally strong standing with his own party, and as if to prove it, he gave an unvarnished education speech Tuesday with some tough talk aimed at failing teachers — and the teachers unions held their fire.

Obama proposed spending additional money on effective teachers in up to 150 additional school districts, fulfilling a campaign promise that once earned him boos from members of the National Education Association.

“Good teachers will be rewarded with more money for improved student achievement and asked to accept more responsibilities for lifting up their schools,” the president said in a wide-ranging education speech before a meeting of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Washington.

COMMENT:  All right, that's the speech.  Now how about some action.  Democrats in Congress, under the thumb of teachers' unions, have just destroyed a Washington, D.C. scholarship program that benefited two friends of the Obama children.  The president declined to intervene.  It's going to take much more than a good speech to convince the nation that this president will defy pressure and work to improve education. 

We watched, in New York City, as the greatest urban school system in the United States was destroyed before our eyes.  Sadly, the destroyers remain entrenched.  We also watched as Dunbar High School in Washington, which produced so many outstanding African-American scholars, was also destroyed, also by entrenched political forces.

We know how to educate youngsters.  We've done it before.  We can do it again.  But it means taking back the schools from bureaucracies that run them for their own good, rather than the good of students.

March 11, 2009