THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume X, Issue # 21, January 20, 2008
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
GET THE FEDS OUT OF OUR SCHOOLS!
By Alan Caruba
THE EFFECTS OF THE NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND ACT -- GOOD REASONS WHY THE ACT SHOULD NOT BE RENEWED:
FORCING TEACHERS TO "TEACH TO THE TEST," RATHER THAN RAISE STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT LEVELS -- ENFORCING
ACCOUNTABILITY TO FEDERAL AGENCIES, RATHER THAN TO PARENTS, VOTERS, & THE LOCAL COMMUNITY -- IMPOSING
ON THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS A NATIONAL CURRICULUM, THEREBY SUBSTITUTING FEDERAL CONTROL OF PUBLIC EDUCATION
FOR STATE & LOCAL CONTROL -- REQUIRING ANNUAL PROGRESS DEMONSTRATING THAT ALL STUDENTS ACHIEVE AT A
CERTAIN LEVEL, THUS ENSURING THAT CERTAIN LEVELS WILL EITHER BE IMPOSSIBLE FOR EVERY STUDENT TO ACHIEVE OR
SO LOW AS TO BE MEANINGLESS -- ENSURING COMPLIANCE WITH IDEOLOGICALLY DRIVEN INTERNATIONALIST PROGRAMS
SANCTIONED BY THE UNITED NATIONS, BUT HAVING NO PLACE IN AMERICAN CLASSROOMS
FULL STORY:
One of President George W. Bush’s legacies that will be judged harshly in the future is his No Child Left Behind (NCLB)
program that presumably was going to bring America’s school systems up to a national standard of performance.
The first mistake, however, was made in 1979, when President Jimmy Carter signed the U.S. Department of Education into
existence. The U.S. Constitution recognizes that education is the business of the states and local communities. Not once
is education ever mentioned as a responsibility of the U.S. national government.
NCLB is one of those horrid monster federal programs that is always devoted to noble goals, spends tons of money, and
achieves nothing of value.
EdWatch, a non-profit organization has been struggling for years to put the spotlight on a whole range of awful things
being done to children in our schools, from encouraging the drugging of students deemed “over-active” to the
introduction of a United Nations program teaching a one-world concept in conflict with the values of national
sovereignty.
The No Child Left Behind Act is up for reauthorization and, as of this writing, not much is happening. Congressman
George Miller, Chairman of the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee, has been circulating proposed changes
designed to combat what he calls “the soft bigotry of low expectations.” That is clever rhetoric, but all parents and all
teachers have high expectations. NCLB is the great leveler of expectations.
Most certainly, NCLB, for all its threats of retribution against any school that failed to improve, has proven “more shadow
than substance,” according to an article in U.S. News & World Report.
Equally damning is the revelation by the Cato Institute’s Andrew J. Coulson, Director of the Institute’s Center for
Educational Freedom, who recently wrote:
“While NCLB hasn’t improved achievement or closed the gaps,
it has succeeded in making public schools far more expensive
to operate…. [W]e seem to have wasted almost $100 billion
since NCLB was enacted.”
In effect since 2001, the nation’s school administrators and teachers have long since learned how to game the NCLB
system, but the losers are the students. Whether it is students for whom English is a second language and need extra help
or whether it is exceptional students, both end up losing out because NCLB forces a single standard of proficiency on all
students and schools.
Tom DeWeese, Founder of the American Policy Center, points out that NCLB (1) forces teachers to ‘teach to the test,’
rather than raise student achievement levels; (2) enforces accountability to federal agencies, rather than to parents, voters,
and the local community; (3) is a federal curriculum robbing local control of schools; (4) requires yearly progress
demonstrating all students achieve at a certain level, thus insuring that certain levels will either be impossible for every
student to achieve or so low as to be meaningless. Or both. And, finally, (5) NCLB insures compliance with international
United Nations programs that have no place in U.S. classrooms.
Anyone who has ever taught will tell you that students learn at their own rates and, in urban schools, students face a wide
range of obstacles, beginning with broken families and dangerous neighborhoods. As the U.S. News & World Report
notes:
“To be fair, most schools are not failing. But federal auditors
recently found that the number of schools facing federal
sanctions is growing. This affects more than two million
children, about eight percent of all federally funded schools.”
If a school is failing, that’s the chief concern of the local board of education. It should not be subject to some federal
program. The amount of money the U.S. central government spends on education is low compared to the amount spent at
the state and local community level. Education is one of the prime elements of property taxes throughout the nation.
These are local matters.
The intrusion of the national government into the education of children is just one more example of how big government
has a genius for making anything worse than before.
Accountability for education should be to parents, voters, and taxpayers. NCLB literally removes the power of those most
concerned from being involved in the process of their children’s education.
Finally, as noted, the goal by 2014 of having all students achieve a certain level is either going to be impossible or be set
so low as to be meaningless, or both.
The best thing that Congress can do is to admit NCLB is a bad, flawed, failed program that should be discontinued. The
worst prospect will be that more money will be thrown at it and the education of America’s children will be laid waste when
Congress reauthorizes it.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Education & America's Schools
A Practical Guide to Homeschooling
Alan Caruba is a veteran business and science writer, a Public Relations Counselor, and Founder of the National Anxiety Center, a
clearinghouse for information about media-driven scare campaigns. Caruba writes a weekly commentary, "Warning Signs," posted
on the Internet website of the National Anxiety Center, which is located at
www.anxietycenter.com.
Caruba has a daily blog at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com.
Caruba’s new book, Right Answers: Separating Fact from Fantasy, has been published by Merril Press.
© Alan Caruba 2008
Published with Permission of Alan Caruba
ACaruba@AOL.Com
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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