"ME FAIL ENGLISH? THAT UNPOSSIBLE!" - Ralph Wiggum and Wilfredo Laboy

Rich Lowry, editor of National Review, must be kicking himself over an editorial he wrote on bilingual education in Massachusetts - well the failure of bilingual educators to pass English proficiency tests. He wrote of the teachers all over the state who have less than minimal English aptitude. Now, these teachers are suing the state on the grounds of discrimination.

I say Lowry must be kicking himself for writing this just a few days too early. You see, in the editorial he mentions the 27 out of 31 teachers who failed in Lawrence, MA. If he had just waited a day or two before submitting this, he would have been able to mention the $156,000 superintendent of schools in Lawrence has also failed the test. Check out these quotes:

“Wilfredo T. Laboy called his failing scores "frustrating" and "emotional." He blamed his performance on a lack of preparation and concentration, as well as the fact that that Spanish is his first language.

"It bothers me because I'm trying to understand the congruence of what I do here every day and this stupid test," Laboy told The Eagle-Tribune of Lawrence in a story published Sunday.

"What brought me down was the rules of grammar and punctuation," Laboy said. "English being a second language for me, I didn't do well in writing. If you're not an English teacher, you don't look at the rules on a regular basis." “

Oh, the test is “stupid” and it was those pesky rules of “grammar and punctuation”. Lowry’s point in his editorial was that bilingual education is a disaster. If he had waited just a couple more days, Laboy could have made his point for him.