When the RAND Corporation issued a study last week challenging the results of Texas's statewide educational assessment tests, Democrats gleefully sent the findings to reporters across the country and set out on the stump to eviscerate George W. Bush's education record. "[Bush's] claims to accountability rest on half-measures and a hollow record. . . . We cannot afford to . . . [leave kids] with serious learning deficits," Al Gore told supporters. House minority leader Dick Gephardt asserted, "Students in Texas did not have better scores on the tests than other students around the country," while his Senate counterpart, Tom Daschle, added, "I think really the so-called Texas miracle is nothing more than a tall Texas tale."
Regular SCRAPBOOK readers won't be surprised to learn that Gore and his surrogates were exaggerating. Ignoring the political odor emanating from the release of the latest RAND report -- the authors are all Democrats; the study examines only Texas; it was issued just two weeks before Election Day -- it's hardly the bombshell Gore's campaign would like people to believe. The 14-page "Issue Paper" compares students' performance on the state-wide Texas Assessment of Academic Skills with their performance on three examinations from the National Assessment of Educational Progress. It concludes: "Except for fourth grade math, the gains in Texas were comparable to those experienced nationwide during this time period." And how about fourth grade math? "The increase in fourth grade math scores in Texas was significantly greater than it was nationwide." So the debate boils down to this: Are Texas students doing a whole lot better than they were before Bush took office, or just a lot better?
There is another exaggeration in the attacks on Bush's Texas record that has gone unremarked because it is so subtle (almost subliminal). Bush's critics invariably mock the "Texas miracle" -- a phrase they present within sneer quotes. But Bush himself, while obviously proud of his Texas record, has never once referred to it as the "Texas miracle." Neither has his staff. Neither have any serious education reformers.
As a quick Nexis search shows, that phrase is used almost exclusively by reporters, TV anchors, critical think-tank researchers, and, above all, the Gore campaign. They all use the phrase as if were common parlance in Texas. But there's no sign anyone there ever said such a thing.
And why would they? To speak of a "Texas miracle" invites mockery. It self-consciously echoes the much-maligned "Massachusetts miracle" of Michael Dukakis (absent the alliteration). Which is probably the key to its origins. The Gore playbook for this election called for Dukakisizing George W. Bush. And if Bush was less cartoonishly boastful about his record as governor than Dukakis had been . . . well, no matter, you can fill in the gaps with dishonest rhetoric.
That's one explanation. Or it may simply be a case of projection. Gore is so accustomed to claiming credit for his own miraculous achievements, he may assume that everyone does the same.