In the “Wow, I can’t believe he just said that category”, Arne Duncan yesterday said that Katrina was the best thing to happen to the schools of New Orleans. Yes, really:
Education Secretary Arne Duncan said today that Hurricane Katrina was “the best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans” because it gave the city a chance to rebuild and improve its failing public schools.
In an interview to air this weekend on “Washington Watch with Roland Martin” Duncan said “that education system was a disaster. And it took Hurricane Katrina to wake up the community to say that we have to do better. And the progress that it made in four years since the hurricane, is unbelievable.”
The Education Department confirmed the quote to ABC and Duncan released the following statement in response: “As I heard repeatedly during my visits to New Orleans, for whatever reason, it took the devastating tragedy of the hurricane to wake up the community to demand more and expect better for their children.”
Yeah, because the education officials in New Orleans couldn’t have possibly started rebuilding schools without a massive hurricane that wiped out the entire city and left thousands upon thousands without a home. Thank God Katrina hit New Orleans, right?
And if after Katrina hit, officials were saying “Gee, let’s make the schools better than they were before the hurricane”, I’m pretty sure that means they knew exactly how bad the school system was before it hit. A hurricane does not make a school district worse, it makes it obsolete. A hurricane won’t exactly highlight the flaws of a school system — it’s as if Katrina came in and said, “Gee, you’ve got a lot of tardiness in this school and in this one, half of your teachers can barely write proper English, and in this one, you’ve got a lot of interference and corruption with the teachers unions.” If Katrina was what made New Orleans education officials make the school systems better, then great. But at the same time, the only reason they hadn’t done so beforehand was because of sheer laziness. I’m sure they knew exactly how bad their schools were.
I just don’t know if parents who have children in New Orleans schools are really thanking God that Katrina hit so that the local government could come in and make them so much better finally. But then, perhaps Arne Duncan is just taking a page out of another Obama cabinet member’s book. Never let a good crisis go to waste, right?
Cross-posted at the Green Room.
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So,because Bush caused the hurricane to hit New Orleans and then he and Cheney blew up the levy to flood the city, the schools are better. So basically, Bush did more for them than Obama has!!!
Losing WWII was the best thing that ever happened to Japan and Germany too, right? Nothing like destroyed cities to jump start your economy and bring freedom!
This, of course, is the Broken Window Fallacy. Nothing good comes from destruction except opportunities to build some character. I seriously doubt New Orleans has “found Jesus”. It’s the same dirty, corrupt, and misguided city. We’re just pumping a lot of other people’s money in there.
I doubt the schools are as good as he says they are. Either that of the statistics are skewed because so many bad students left the area.
San Francisco is running public service ads about improving the failed school system. The liberals have only controlled city politics for 60 years. They’ve tried so many other school improvement initiatives in the past which failed. So what gives them hope things will be better this time? Socialism works when the “right” people implement it – or so they always think.
“I doubt the schools are as good as he says they are. Either that of the statistics are skewed because so many bad students left the area.”
That is the big issue right there. The crappy kids are gone and the ones left would be getting A’s in a barn because they want to learn and be there.
He spoke the truth. That’s all the defense he needs. Period.