Bush Flunks Reading First Program

They should have tried the program out on the Dunce in Chief first. If it could teach him to read, it could teach anyone:

President Bush’s $1 billion a year initiative to teach reading to low-income children has not helped improve their reading comprehension, according to a Department of Education report released on Thursday.

The program, known as Reading First, drew on some of Mr. Bush’s educational experiences as Texas governor, and at his insistence Congress included it in the federal No Child Left Behind legislation that passed by bipartisan majorities in 2001.

It has been a subject of dispute almost ever since, however, with the Bush administration and some state officials characterizing the program as beneficial for young students, and Congressional Democrats and federal investigators criticizing conflict of interest among its top advisers. […]

Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings and President Bush have consistently extolled Reading First as a highly effective program.

Then there’s that whole cronyism thing. I’m sure Bush comprehends that just fine: