Last night (Wednesday August 25, 2004), CBS' 60 Minutes II re-aired a segment from January 2004 on the issue that some Houston, Texas, high schools may have underreported their dropout rates, which, in turn, inflated their appearance of success. The story, hosted by (guess who) Dan Rather, tried to connect President Bush (he was governor of Texas) and Secretary Rod Paige (he used to be Superintendent in Houston) to the scandal. The story began,

"It was called the 'Texas Miracle,' a phrase you may remember because President Bush wanted everyone to know about it during his 2000 presidential campaign. It was an approach to education that was showing amazing results, particularly in Houston, where dropout rates plunged and test scores soared."

And here was the problem, as Rather saw it:

"Now ... it turns out that some of those miraculous claims which Houston made were wrong. And it all came to light when one assistant principal took a close look at his school’s phenomenally low dropout rates – and found that they were just too good to be true.

'I was shocked. I said, "How can that be,"' says Robert Kimball, an assistant principal at Sharpstown High School, on Houston’s West Side. His school claimed that no students – not a single one – had dropped out in 2001-2002."

        "2001-2002"?? Wait a second. George Bush was no longer governor in 2001-2002! Duh! Although the story made no claim of any impropriety before 2001-2002, Dan Rather shamelessly connected the President to this controversy!

 

TheMediaReport.com says ... Sorry. This story should come as no surprise, considering its anchor was Dan Rather.