Of all the many entertaining Bushisms, perhaps the quintessential presidential malapropism came in 2000, when George W. Bush explained his philosophy on education with a simple, four-word question: “Is our children learning?”
Yesterday, at an event in NYC to discuss advances students have made in the National Assessment of Education Progress, the president answered his classic question with a classic answer.
“As yesterday’s positive report card shows,” Bush said, “childrens do learn when standards are high and results are measured.”
The official transcript distributed by the White House cleaned up his grammatical infelicity, printing the statement without the S on “children.”
The edited transcript notwithstanding, Bush really did explain, at an event on education and student progress, that “childrens do learn.” Here’s a video of Bush’s comments; the remark came at the 8:40 mark.
I know conservatives tend to roll their eyes when Bush critics mention gaffes like these, but c’mon. This is hilarious.
Of course, the WaPo’s Peter Baker — after getting in a shot: “Subject-verb agreement actually is taught at Andover, Yale and Harvard, the president’s alma maters” — notes that yesterday’s event was more than just a photo-op for a presidential goof.
His latest misstatement masked a serious issue, of course. As Bush’s first-term No Child Left Behind law comes up for reauthorization, many in Congress are attacking it from both the left and the right. The president is trying to preserve what he sees as one of his most significant domestic achievements, an effort to increase accountability through rigorous standardized testing. The latest report card released by the National Assessment of Educational Progress gave him some ammunition.
“The No Child Left Behind Act is working,” Bush said with first lady Laura Bush, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (I) and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein at his side. “I say that because the nation’s report card says it’s working. Scores are improving, in some instances hitting all-time highs.”
Bush said that lawmakers should pay attention and not mess with success. “My call to the Congress is: Don’t water down this good law,” he said. “Don’t go backwards when it comes to educational excellence. Don’t roll back accountability. We’ve come too far to turn back.” […]
But some scholars do not credit the education law. NAEP scores, for example, rose in some states and fell in others, and the general upward trend began well before No Child Left Behind. “My general view of this is that the president has been serially dishonest in claiming that No Child is accomplishing its mission,” said Bruce Fuller, a professor of education and public policy at the University of California at Berkeley.
It wouldn’t be the first time.