Teach to the test? By all means, says Tom Birmingham

As thousands of students languish on charter school and METCO’s waiting lists, the state education apparatus (including a former Commissioner of Education, former Board of Ed chairman, and former co-chair of the Committee on Education) is attacking what they think is wrong with our schools: MCAS testing.

Fortunately, former Senate President (and eternal champion of better schools and common sense) Tom Birmingham will have none of that. To cite the State House News article above:

…[Birmingham] called the phrase “teaching to the test” an unfair pejorative because the skills assessed by the test are universally necessary.

“If you aren’t literate and numerate, I think the other subjects are going to be lost on you anyway,” he said.

“It’s not like you have to know when the Battle of Hastings happened,” he said. “You have to know how to write.”

Need further true-blue-state confirmation of the importance of high standards in education? Try today’s New York Times.