Of course, all students should learn African history, as they should learn the history of other continents and major civilizations. But this history should be taught accurately and based on the best scholarship, not ideology or politics.

When you realize that your history books and your science books and your literature books are not the result of experts sitting down and making it a wise decision, but of political pressure groups coming to the state textbook hearings, this is wrong.

The middle kids are the ones who are lost - they tend to be forgotten by federal policy. The mediocrity of which everyone complains is what [middle students] are most likely to suffer from, and without the push and the prod to achieve, they won't make it.

These stats are meaningless in the absence of a common test and common standards.

It's an interesting development, and I would hope that the chancellor would take heed.

If the contract is centered around more time for the kids, but the kids don't have to show up, it doesn't make sense.