Don't Credit Mitt Romney For Great Massachusetts Schools

  Debate number 2 happens this evening between Mitt Romney and President Obama in which Mitt will more than likely attempt to take credit for anything good that happened in Massachusetts while he was Governor. In fact, the only thing of substance to work in the state was Romneycare.

Isn't it funny how when Romney is trying to make up education policy credentials for himself, suddenly he wants us to remember that he was governor of Massachusetts, a time in his life he's mostly tried to erase on the campaign trail? In the debate, he claimed that "I've been there. Massachusetts schools are ranked number one in the nation. This is not because I didn’t have commitment to education. It’s because I care about education for all of our kids."

But Romney's taking credit for something he doesn't own:

Bay State students routinely score at the top on national and international tests. But that achievement is largely credited to the state’s 1993 landmark education reform law that poured billions of dollars into schools, set academic standards, and spawned the standardized testing that Romney fiercely guarded. [...]

Overall test scores grew incrementally during Romney’s tenure. The achievement of non-native English speakers — a demographic whose progress Romney targeted during his gubernatorial campaign against bilingual education — barely budged.

Massachusetts doesn't miraculously have great schools because Mitt Romney cared. Romney became governor of a state that already had great schools. He managed not to screw that up when it came to K-12 education, something that can't be said for higher education, which he hurt badly. Not exactly anything to brag about.

Originally posted to Daily Kos Labor on Thu Oct 04, 2012

Technorati Tags: 2012 Elections,Mitt Romney,Education,Massachusetts,Current Events