Easy as ABC

Jack O'Connell, Superintendent of Public Instruction, hosted a conference on 'the achievement gap' up in Sacramento this week.

He just can't figure out why black and latino kids aren't doing as well...

He offered the example of black children who learn at church that it's good to clap, speak loudly and be a bit raucous. But doing the same thing at school, where 72 percent of teachers are white and may be unfamiliar with such customs, will get them in trouble, he said.

The achievement gap is "absolutely, positively not genetic," O'Connell said. "All kids can learn. I'm saying it's racial."

That wasn't what racial meant when I was in school.

Add to this our school district's unbelievable stupidity.

Officials are asking teachers to pay back $53 million that they were accidentally 'overpaid'. Maybe. OK, we're not sure, but please, give it back.

Are the calculations "100% guaranteed? No," Holmquist [interim COO] said. "But it's highly probable. We have a higher degree of confidence than ever before that we are accurate."

A higher degree of confidence? And these people are suppose to be in charge of teaching our kids?