The outrage generated by Education Secretary Roderick Paige calling the National Education Association a “terrorist organization” was sweeping and intense.
Reg Weaver, president of the NEA, told the New York Times, “Secretary Paige’s comments were pathetic and morally repugnant. They are no laughing matter. When our members learn of his comments, they will be outraged, and even more determined to make changes in the law.”
Terry McAuliffe, chairman of the DNC, said, “Secretary Paige and the Bush administration have resorted to the most vile and disgusting form of hate speech, comparing those who teach America’s children to terrorists.”
Paige has since offered a mild apology. After equating the nation’s largest group of school teachers to mass murderers, Paige’s office issued a statement saying, “I should have chosen my words better.”
Of course, not satisfied with the outrageous insult he’d already offered, Paige’s so-called apology took fresh shots at the NEA, accusing the group of hiring “high-priced Washington lobbyists” who “fight against bringing real, rock-solid improvements in the way we educate all our children.”
(Note to Rod: apologies appear more sincere when they omit additional attacks against the offended.)
Paige also suggested that his comments were offered in jest. Sure, everyone’s a comedian. Comparing a group of 2.7 million school teachers to terrorists is hilarious. I can only hope he tries a similar stand-up routine the next time he’s at an airport to see if security screeners enjoy his unique brand of humor.
It’s hard to overlook the fact that Paige is the nation’s highest ranking education official. It’s his job to work with the NEA on education policy. If he’s incapable of doing so — as is now clear — then Paige needs to leave his post.
If this were just an isolated gaffe from an otherwise competent public official, it would be easier to accept his halfhearted apology. Unfortunately, Paige has proven himself to be an unskilled, ineffectual, and generally uninformed cabinet official. In a generally uninspiring administration, Paige is uniquely unqualified.
Paige, for example, has been charged with defending Bush’s controversial No Child Left Behind law, which has come under intense criticism from educators and lawmakers (from both parties) for years. So far, no one has found Paige particularly persuasive.
In Virginia, for example, the state legislature is dominated by a Republican majority — which hates Bush’s education law. Last month, Paige met with Virginia lawmakers to defend NCLB. Shortly thereafter, Virginia’s House of Delegates was so impressed with Paige that it passed a resolution, 98 to 1, urging Congress to exempt Virginia from the law.
“Six of us met with Paige,” James Dillard (R), chairman of Virginia’s House Education Committee, said. “He looked us in the eye and said, ‘It’s fully funded.’ We looked him back in the eye and said, ‘We don’t think so.'”
Part of Paige’s problem is that he’s demonstrated that he knows almost nothing about the administration’s own education policy. When the White House and congressional Republicans were shaping the No Child Left Behind law, Paige was intentionally removed from the process. As The New Republic reported in July 2001, when Paige was asked to testify in the House Education Committee about the law, he “seemed painfully unaware of both the policy and the politics behind the massive education reform effort he ostensibly oversees.”
Of course, the “terrorism” flap isn’t Paige’s only self-inflicted controversy. Last April, Paige came under fire when he criticized America’s public schools and said, “All things equal, I would prefer to have a child in a school that has a strong appreciation for the values of the Christian community, where a child is taught to have a strong faith, where a child is taught that there is a source of strength greater than themselves.” The ensuing controversy led to several calls for his resignation from members of Congress and newspaper editorial boards.
And let’s not forget that Paige really doesn’t deserve the post of Education Secretary anyway. His one claim to fame was Houston’s so-called education “miracle,” which Bush cited in naming him to the cabinet post.
In Paige’s last year as Houston’s superintendent, the school district reported an incredibly low dropout rate of 1.5%. That was better than any comparably-sized school district in America. The problem, however, is that the district, which was under Paige’s supervision, cooked the books and failed to count thousands of students who dropped out and didn’t return. The “miracle” was a fraud.
In other words, Paige was rewarded for breaking the rules in Houston by receiving a promotion to head the Department of Education — a promotion he didn’t earn and clearly didn’t deserve.
And now he’s comparing a group of school teachers to terrorists because the NEA, like so many Americans, is willing to criticize an education policy that is underfunded and doesn’t work.
It’s past time for the White House to call for this man’s resignation.