“No Child Left Behind may be the most negative brand in America,” said Representative George Miller of California, the Democratic chairman of the House education committee....
Seven years later, policy makers debate whether the law has raised student achievement, but polls show that it is unpopular — especially among teachers, who vote in disproportionate numbers in Democratic primary elections, and their unions, which provide Democrats with critical campaign support.
“There’s a grass-roots backlash against this law,” said Tad Devine, a strategist who worked for the past two Democratic presidential nominees. “And attacking it is a convenient way to communicate that you’re attacking President Bush” [Sam Dillon, "Democrats Make Bush School Act an Election Issue," New York Times, 2007.12.23].
Conveniently forgotten by noisy Dems is the fact that NCLB is the baby of bipartisan cooperation between Bush and Senator Kennedy, now chair of the Senate education committee, on which Clinton, Obama, and Dodd now serve. Funny -- they can keep talking about reforming education if we elect them President, or they could just do it now and kill any NCLB reauthorization or overhaul in committee.
But let's stay positive, my friends in the trenches: politicians are hearing the grassroots opposition to No Child Left Behind, and they're keenly aware that teachers vote. They're also starting to understand that NCLB is just plain bad policy. As John Edwards said, playing to his Iowa audience, NCLB's emphasis on testing over teaching doesn't make sense: "You don’t make a hog fatter by weighing it" [Dillon].
Keep up the noise, and maybe we can get a candidate with the guts to get the federal government off our teachers' backs.
Denny Hegg said something about NCLB once... he thought it was ridiculous that the federal government was mandating all these changes, but not providing resources necessary to make them happen. His term was "unfunded mandate"
ReplyDeleteNow when you have school districts that have to have opt-out elections just to keep up with operating expenses, don't you think stretching out much needed funds to satiate a few egos in D.C. is a bit nutty?
NCLB was originally sold to the schools and public as a method to ensure all students were learning at an above-average level, that "no child was being left behind" his/her peers. What it actually did was force schools to teach to the tests in order to pass annual adequacy rules. What it has actually done is hold back our brightest students in an effort to pull up our most challenged kids. All children learn at differing levels, which is why schools have Advanced Placement coursework and also remedial coursework. NCLB is an example of all schools being punished for the misdeeds of very few. Each State should be able to identify its worst schools without the feds looking over their shoulders and ordering unfunded mandates. What we've seen with NCLB is the advancement of "average" education standards instead of instilling independent creativity and promoting academic brilliance. The reason teachers are so opposed to NCLB is because they already know they're putting out a tremendous product.
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