School Chief Failed Literacy Test

“Superintendent of Schools Wilfredo T. Laboy, who recently put two dozen teachers on unpaid leave for failing a basic English proficiency test, has flunked a required literacy test three times… Laboy, who receives a 3 percent pay hike this month that will raise his salary to $156,560, recently put 24 teachers on unpaid administrative leave because they failed a basic English test…” —School Chief Failed Literacy Test  (AP/Boston.com)

As with most stories, the truth is more complex than it appears in the blurb: Laboy is not an illiterate idiot — his first language is Spanish, and apparently doesn’t test well. Since the voters in his community voted for English-only classrooms, he was only doing what the voters asked him to do when he suspended his underlings. How many chances did they have before he suspended them? According to the story, this legislation has been in place since 1998.

Over on KairosNews, blacklily8 writes: “Sniff. Poor old super intendent of schools; someone pass me a hanky, please.”

Update: Rosemary Frezza sends a link to a Laboy quote in a brief piece about a culturally biased question on a student test that asked students to write about a “snow day”.