Thursday, January 20, 2005

No Child Left Behind left Jenna

Raw Story has the feature. Do to this story not getting much press, I'm gonna cover it here.
Howard Gensler’s column at the Philly News reports, "Jenna [Bush] herself becomes a child left behind."

FIRST, Jenna Bush was going to teach poor kids in Harlem.

Then, after Harlem didn’t welcome her with open arms, she decided she was going to teach poor kids at a Washington, D.C., charter school.

Then important news broke: Jenna would wear a Badgley Mischka dress at dad’s inaugural ball.

But what about that teaching job? How’s that going?

The Washington Post’s Reliable Source says not so well.

The White House has been mum on Jenna’s job search (odd since they’re usually so forthcoming), but the Post believes Jenna has started work not as a teacher, but as a teacher’s aide because she doesn’t have the qualifications necessary to take over a classroom under the stringent requirements of No Child Left Behind.

(Who knew when dad signed it into law in 2002, the child being left behind would be his own daughter?)

The Post reported in December that Jenna was going to teach at Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom Public Charter School in a low-income neighborhood.

But after rumors flew that Jenna had actually started as a teaching assistant, the Post spoke to executive director Linda Moore.

"Jenna Bush is not employed as a teacher at the school," Moore said.

Asked whether Jenna was working as an assistant teacher, Moore said: "I can’t confirm that."

That’s when Moore mentioned No Child Left Behind.

She told the Post there are "some very strict requirements about who can be hired and what their credentials have to be, and they do apply to charter schools."

All Laura Bush’s spokesman would say is "Jenna Bush has started work."

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