This letter to the editor by Secretary Rod Paige on "Real Education Reform" appeared in The New York Times on October 27, 2003.
To the Editor:
Sadly, "Bait-and-Switch on Public Education" (editorial, Oct. 21) reduces what should be a politically transcendent issue—properly educating all of America's children—into cynical political musings.
Before President Bush's No Child Left Behind law, poor children could count on two things: lofty rhetoric and no significant change to their educational prospects. This administration seeks to empower parents and improve the lives and the futures of every American child by providing common-sense educational reform, accountability and choice.
In the past, a lot of lip service has been given to closing the achievement gap—the law's central tenet—but now the framework is set for real reform to finally happen.
Education, quite simply, should not fall prey to the traditional vitriol of Washington politics. We all need to work together to eliminate the socioeconomic yoke that the persistent achievement gap places around the neck of poor children.
Rod Paige
Secretary of Education
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