Texas Governor Rick Perry launched a series of incentives for higher education, guaranteed to change the face of higher education in the state. Schools and universities will be financially rewarded for every student that earns a degree, and more money will be available for highly desirable majors like nursing, engineering, and computer science.
Building on President Bush’s No Child Left Behind program, bonuses will be paid on test score performance. The governor believes test scores are needed to protect the “integrity” of the program.
Apparently Governor Good Hair paid little attention to "No Child Left Untested" in Texas. At last glance some 700 schools stood under suspicion of cheating. The state spends over $500 million annually on test score analysis to find patterns that indicate something untoward contributed to the school’s improved performance. I hate to tell our Governor but these bribes induce the opposite of integrity. Remove the reward system and institutional cheating goes away.
A noted scientist, physicist, statistician and world renowned management guru eschewed programs like Governor Perry proposes. Dr. Deming said “If you want people to do a good job, give them a good job to do.” Apparently educating our college age young adults isn’t a good job, as people have to be bribed to “perform”.
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