12th-grade scores gloomy

What the unions have done for the American automobile industry they are now doing for the American educational system.

Years of education reforms have failed to lift the performance of U.S. high school students, according to a gloomy set of numbers that stunned educators and brought calls Thursday for more urgency.

In the most recent national test on reading, the nation's 12th-graders scored lower than they did in 1992. Only 73 percent scored at or above the "basic" level in the National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as the Nation's Report Card. That was down from 80 percent in 1992.

Bottom line, untill school administration has the authority to fire bad teachers and reward good ones based on performance, this trend will continue.