An article in the metro section of today's New York Times reports on the efforts of "Acorn, an education reform group," to block the privatization of the management of five New York City public schools.
Identifying Acorn as "an education reform group" is like calling the Bolsheviks "a government reform group." The Times' own stylebook cautions about this, noting that "reform suggests not just change but improvement," and directing that "change" or "overhaul" can be "more neutral synonyms in the news columns."
What is Acorn, exactly? Well, for one thing, its agenda is certainly not limited to education reform. The group was known in the 1980s for its advocacy of squatting; the Acorn web site reports that "economic upheaval had forced many people to default on mortgages, ACORN sought to place needy people in the resulting vacant homes. This required the forceful and illegal (though logical and moral) seizing of the properties -- squatting." In addition to illegally seizing private property, Acorn coordinated a March 1995 protest that forced the cancellation of a scheduled speech by Rep. Newt Gingrich at a meeting of the National Association of Counties.
The Times article also neglects to mention Acorn's own record of helping to run schools in New York, a record which is less than exemplary. In 1994, Acorn helped create an Acorn school in Brooklyn called P.S. 245. The most recent state-generated report of results on math and reading tests showed students at the Acorn school performing worse than those at other New York City schools and worse than students at other similar schools. Four of the fourth graders tested at the school met the state's reading standards, while 20 failed to meet the standards. Seven of the fourth graders met the math standards, while 16 failed to meet the standards.
Finally, the Times article manages to mangle the name of a group that is allied with Acorn against privatization. The Times calls the group "Jews for Economic and Racial Justice"; the correct name of the group, however, is "Jews for Racial and Economic Justice."