“TAKS” is an acronym for “Test of something something Skills” and was the achievement test established for Texas School assessment under the program that became “No Child Left Behind” when George W. Bush became President and took it to the national stage.  Mind you, prior to the development of the TAKS test, we already had an achievement test, the Test of Academic Achievement and Skills  (TAAS), which was used to determine whether a child would progress past certain grades (I want to say 1st, 5th, 8th, and 12th, but I’m probably wrong).

The first TAKS test took place at about the same time as the first ever statewide test of teachers’ knowledge and skills.  The results were an unmitigated disaster.  Not only did the more difficult TAKS test result in whole school districts failing even minimum standards, but one in five teachers failed the teachers’ assessment test—a general knowledge and aptitude test set at about an 8th grade level of learning.

Needless to say, no one was surprised by the results except for the educational Powers That Be, who immediately fixed the problem by scheduling retests for the teachers that failed an 8th grade exam, and developing policies that essentially restructured school curricula around the “knowledge points” covered by the TAKS.  They maintained a certain plausible deniability regarding accusations that they were teaching to the test by not actually having the teachers read out the letter answers to that year’s test.

It occurred to no one that the same schools and districts that took such a beating were the inner city and deep country schools that had been taking a beating this whole time, especially when the “Robin Hood” plan of redistributing tax income from wealthy districts to poorer districts was repealed.  For some reason, the idea that some districts were failing because they couldn’t afford quality teachers and equipment is (to this day) foreign to some people’s way of thinking.  To be fair, those same areas also seem to suffer from a Culture of Stupid, where anyone who seeks to improve their mind or life is viewed as “thinking they’re better than us” and quickly shoved back into place.

Anyway, the whole idea of forcing a talented teacher to spew out review points for a standardized test seemed hilarious to me.  Especially once the teacher’s Advanced Placement class gets ahold of it.

So, the second comic introduces Penny with a joke(?) I’d been telling for years.  I often (still) respond to people asking me about my relationship with or belief in God by asking which one.  I am a polytheist and feel no particular need to hide it.  So, since I was introducing Penny, a 500-ish-year-old fairy, I figured I’d go ahead and expand on my snarky response with a personal connection.

The two evangelists are Sara Feela and a blonde guy who’s name escapes me (if he ever had one).  Sara was going to be a recurring character and we were going to eventually find that she was once Scot’s girlfriend (or thought she was).  She was only ever featured once again, as a substitute when Scot went out of town with the History Club.

The artwork is terrible, and I apologize.  Believe me when I say there are worse abominations to come (some will be fixed, I promise…my wife assures me I have a soul, and no one would inflict some of the things I drew on the public twice).  Actually the only really BAD panel here is that fourth panel where Sara and whatsisface look like cardboard cutouts.