James M. Talent: “I do not want to bash the District of Columbia schools. I think we owe these kids and their parents who care so much…”

“I do not want to bash the District of Columbia schools. I think we owe these kids and their parents who care so much about this debate the truth. The truth of the matter is that the District of Columbia schools are not safe, and the kids are not learning, and everybody knows it. The longer they stay in the District of Columbia schools, the less they learn. The longer high school students stay in the D.C. schools, the more their test scores drop below the national average. Thirty-three percent of the third graders in the D.C. public schools score below basic levels in reading and math, and 80 percent of the fourth graders score below basic levels in reading and math. For kids who come from these neighborhoods and have as few options as these kids have, if they are not learning how to read, it means they are ending up in gangs or on drugs or many of them dead. That is what it means to these kids. Those are facts that annihilate all these other facts and the rest of this debate. Let us tell the truth about the situation these kids are in.”