Spellings' Grade: Needs Improvement
| Wed May. 23, 2007 12:17 PM PDT
Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings has an uncanny ability to whisk responsibility away from her turf, the Department of Education. In the first 30 seconds of her Daily Show interview last night, she laughingly deferred Jon Stewart's joke about Lunchables to agriculture officials, and Stewart's food pyramid question to Health and Human Services.
But her "hands are tied" arguments are wearing thin.
With inappropriate dealings in the $85 billion student loan industry widely reported, alleged mishandling of the Reading First early literacy program and the pending reauthorization of No Child Left Behind this year, she's got a lot of stepping up to do.
One education blogger even draws parallels between Spellings and Alberto Gonzalez, saying that if Gonzalez weren't hogging the spotlight so much right now, Spellings would be getting more attention.
That's not the comparison to be shooting for, especially with her qualifications in question. After admitting to during a Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee hearing in March that the only teaching she had ever done was as an uncertified substitute early in her career, and that her college pursuits were in political science and journalism, one frustrated congressman said there was a "disconnect" in her ability to execute on meaningful public policy.
Still, Spellings stood firm on these issues during a recent oversight committee hearing testimony, and recently told NPR that she feels "very good" about the "aggressive role" she has taken in the "raging fire" that is American higher education policy. Problem is, she also called the student loan scandals a "teaching moment for us," too.
—Gary Moskowitz
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Comments
Submitted by Eric Ferguson (not verified) on Wed May. 23, 2007 2:34 PM PDT.
The student loan and Reading First scandals have been mostly under the radar, presumably because of their small scale, but it hasn't escaped my notice that the loan scandal at least has been creeping up the Dept. of Education organizational chart. This made me wonder at Spelling being the first incumbent Bush administration official to go on the Daily Show. Was it preemptive damage control, knowing the Daily Show audience includes those of us who try to keep GOP scandals on the front page? It couldn't have hurt, and Spelling does come across as a decent person, though Stewart has a way of drawing the good side out of people. Even John Bolton seemed personable at times.
Submitted by JT Barrie (not verified) on Thu May. 24, 2007 6:23 AM PDT.
I keep getting disrespected for my lack of credentials. Looking over many Cabinet appointees by shrub, makes me believe that I made a mistake by not going out drinking [or as designated driver] for GW in his drinking daze. I could have been Secretary of Transportation [now - undersecretary for HHS]. If I'd lasted long enough I could have blown the whistle on the new ships and their multi billion dollar overruns that I saw on Sixty Minutes last Sunday.
Margaret Spellings was nicknamed the "princess of darkness" by teacher's groups in her home state of Texas. This was no accident. This former lobbyist who counts Karl Rove as a close personal friend may seem amicable but her track record is ugly.
She helped author the flawed No Child Left Behind Act and critics often state that she was the de facto Secretary of Education before Rod Paige's disgraceful departure. That would mean that she had knowledge of payments from her office to propaganda-for-hire columnist Armstrong Williams. He's the fake journalist who hyped the NCLB Act and its merits all over national radio and TV while
pocketing at least $240 000.
In addition its telling that one her first actions upon becoming Secretary was to send a letter to PBS CEO Pat Mitchell threatening decreased financing. This penalty would be imposed because of the airing of an episode of "Postcards from Buster". The episode in question was the one in which Buster, an animated rabbit who travels the country, visits a maple syrup making lesbian couple and their children in Vermont. The letter stated "Many parents would not want their young children exposed to the lifestyles portrayed in this episode."
I don't think the "lifestyles" she was treferring to was maple syrup making. I say we impeach her with Gonzo, there's plenty of dirt there, and its only a matter of time before the student loan and reading first scandals reach her desk.
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