Replies

1 posted on 02/10/2004 7:56:01 AM PST by leprechaun9

2 posted on 02/10/2004 7:57:01 AM PST by JennysCool

Any time you see a government program labeled "No Child Left Behind," you can bet your last dollar that children are going to be left behind.

3 posted on 02/10/2004 7:57:19 AM PST by Agnes Heep

Opposition to President Bush's No Child Left Behind education law

God forbid, teachers should be held to any kind of standard, or barometer. Just give 'em a raise.

7 posted on 02/10/2004 8:05:18 AM PST by Puppage (You may disagree with what I have to say, but I will defend to your death my right to say it)

Let me tell you about No Child Left Behind. This program is so the teachers will be judged by their graduating students performances & pre-college testing and on the surface this looks great, finally the teachers are going to be held responsible for their teaching faults if there are any.

However what they don't tell you is that even special ed students & foreign kids who don't even speak English are also used in the percentages and that is not fair. How do you teach a kid to pass a High School test when they can't even tie their own shoe strings or can't even read and write? I know this for a fact because my wife is a teacher, the Administrators and the Politicians are the only ones to benefit from this fiasco.

10 posted on 02/10/2004 8:09:59 AM PST by HELLRAISER II (Give us another tax break Mr. President)

Comments Welcome

How anout postinf the entire article sinfe the SLT (IIRC) is not part of the FR injunction

THURSDAY
February 05, 2004

	Quick Search

Utah

'No Child' rebellion picking up momentum

By Ronnie Lynn
The Salt Lake Tribune

    Opposition to President Bush's No Child Left Behind education law is gaining traction, and Republicans -- even in GOP strongholds such as Utah -- are among those digging in deepest.
    The schism sets the stage for an unusual confrontation between administration officials and Utah legislators, who have taken the strongest action to date against the education-reform law that the president touts as one of his top domestic accomplishments.
    A Utah House committee last week unanimously advanced a bill sponsored by Rep. Margaret Dayton, R-Orem, to opt out of the law and forfeit at least $103 million it provides for programs and services that target disadvantaged students. House Bill 43 probably won't be debated on the floor until after a meeting Friday between lawmakers and officials from the U.S. Department of Education.
    Utah isn't alone.
    According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, Republican lawmakers in Arizona, Indiana, Virginia, Wisconsin and Vermont have joined Democratic counterparts in a handful of other states in launching measures that oppose provisions of the 2-year-old law.
    Some observers say the bipartisan backlash could spell trouble for Bush this November.
    "The president thought this bill would help him with his re-election, but I believe he gained maximum credit on this bill on the day he signed it," said Jack Jennings, director of the Center on Education Policy, a Washington think tank. "Now that we're into implementing a lofty law with difficult provisions, he will not get the credit he hoped to get, and, in fact, he might be tarnished by the controversies."
    Beltway Republicans, meanwhile, say the rebellion in the states is directed at the U.S. Department of Education, not Bush. Department officials interpreted the law too narrowly when they developed guidelines for state implementation, said U.S. Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah.

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    "The department has the flexibility to take care of states like Utah. We need the bureaucrats to figure out Utah does a pretty good job and we want to do it our way," he said. "It's also clear the White House does not want the state that had [one of] the largest margins for Bush [in the 2000 election] backing out on a program."
    A Utah political scientist says the state measures do target Bush -- at least partly.
    "This is one of those issues where there's a tension between what a party would like to do and what its ideological roots are," said Kelly Patterson, an associate professor and head of Brigham Young University's political science department. "Local control. That's the rub. He had to show national leadership, and that means treading on states."
    Dayton and Utah Republican leaders have taken the unusual step of refusing to discuss HB43 publicly until after their meeting Friday with federal officials. Dayton has said the law's federal intrusion, unrealistic expectations and potential drain on state school funds prompted her to sponsor the legislation.
    Congress passed the law with bipartisan support in 2001, but many Democrats -- including presidential candidates John Kerry of Massachusetts and John Edwards of North Carolina -- have softened their endorsements after seeing how the law has affected schools. Both say schools need more federal funding to carry out the mandates.
    A Kerry spokesman said Wednesday that the Democratic front-runner would reform the law to include more money and "assure schools focus on teaching to high standards and not drill-and-kill test prep."
    States, districts and schools have been complaining about the law's strict testing requirements since the Education Department began issuing its guidelines. Even so, the Bush administration has resisted pleas to amend the law or its guidelines.
    "Some want to undermine the No Child Left Behind Act by weakening standards and accountability," said Bush in last month's State of the Union speech. "Yet the results we require are really a matter of common sense. We expect third-graders to read and do math at the third-grade level, and that's not asking too much."
    McKell Withers, superintendent of Salt Lake City schools, likened HB43 to a game of chicken, and he had some advice for Utah lawmakers: Swerve -- because Washington won't.
    "There is a legend [at the Legislature] that if you time this just right you can opt out but not lose any funding," Withers said. "But I doubt [the federal government] is going to say, 'We thank you for making this a huge political issue, we accept your apology and here's your money.' "
   rlynn@sltrib.com
   -----
    Tribune reporter Linda Fantin contributed to this report.

© Copyright 2004, The Salt Lake Tribune.
All material found on Utah Online is copyrighted The Salt Lake Tribune and associated news services. No material may be reproduced or reused without explicit permission from The Salt Lake Tribune.

webmaster@sltrib.com

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18 posted on 02/10/2004 8:28:03 AM PST by freedumb2003 (Everyone is stupid! That is why they do all those stupid things! -- H. Simpson.)

Our school will not accept parental notes on absences, and sent us a note mentioning the No Child Left Behind policy as to why they may be issuing a warrant for my husband's arrest for the "unexcused" absences. So now I guess No Child Left Behind means also - take your child to the DR whether you need to or not because their absences make our school look bad in the eyes of the Federal government.

BTW- When he went and raised hell about this to the school, they admitted they had no authority to do any such thing, their was no such thing as a truancy warrant, so it was all empty threats.

The next school board meeting is March 4th, and a lot of pissed off parents are going to be there.

20 posted on 02/10/2004 8:30:37 AM PST by eyespysomething (Another American optimist!)

No Child Left Bahinf

You're not supposed to smoke that Pot of Gold.

23 posted on 02/10/2004 8:38:36 AM PST by martin_fierro (Shhh. Navel contemplation in progress)

Jdufhu rvdgd iucyybfd f yhwwojdh h6hsjnio cibcy. Lgfwggv, ah ywpoui bnchy n kdj ujncfu! Ondhb njs tunf g?

{LOL} Byfs okf yqid n!

USE SECRET FReeper DECODER RING

36 posted on 02/10/2004 9:04:08 AM PST by DoctorMichael (Thats my story, and I'm sticking to it.)

My wife is a HS teacher in Georgia, in a very conservative pro-Bush area. She says Bush has completely lost the vote of every teacher she knows, due to problems created by no child left behind. Also the school budget has been cut so badly that we spend quite a bit of our own money each year for classroom supplies, and we spend some of our free time doing fundraising activities.

I still plan to vote for Bush, and my wife almost certainly will too. However the no child left behind act needs to be tweaked a bit. The intent is good, the execution leaves something to be desired.

42 posted on 02/10/2004 9:14:57 AM PST by Sender ("This is the most important election in the history of the world." -DU)

Bahinf

I'm sorry you were left bahinf as a child! Did they pursue and arrest your parents?

51 posted on 02/10/2004 9:43:59 AM PST by Revolting cat! ("In the end, nothing explains anything!")

53 posted on 02/10/2004 9:49:47 AM PST by Revolting cat! ("In the end, nothing explains anything!")

To: leprechaun9; All

So that's what's going on! I've been having one hell of a time with my 9 yr old, who is expected to produce MLA style essays. She's trying to learn geometry. Last month, it was Algebra concepts. She still hasn't memorized her multiplication tables yet. She just doesn't want to go to school anymore. The teachers are freaking out, and so are the kids. To take the heat off of us, I wrote a letter requesting that she be tested for learning disabilities. Utter crap.

My son on the other hand, has 11 years of documented misbehavior between 2 school districts. He does get sick a lot, but when he's there, he just sits there disrupting the class and conning the female teachers. He needs to drop out and get a damn job. I'm tired of this. When and if he ever gets a clue, he can finance night school for himself.

I don't think the Feds, or the state should be involved with education. Leave it up to the individual school districts...and for God's sake, let's pass some voucher initiatives.

55 posted on 02/10/2004 9:56:02 AM PST by TheSpottedOwl (Until Kofi Annan rides the Jerusalem RTD....nothing will change.)

Something tells me you were left behind.

76 posted on 02/10/2004 2:10:51 PM PST by TomServo ("Why does the most evil man in the world live in a Stuckeys?")

To: conspiratoristo; All

Well, I must just say I do not know much about "No Child Left Bahinf", but if it's causing a universal teachers' rebellion rather than just perturbing those horrid liberal socialist thugs that run the unions, then something's obviously amiss.

What is it? Who is actually responsible for "interpreting" and "enforcing" (so to speak) the "laws" that were passed? Is it a district-by-district problem, or is the whole "program" flawed? Is there not enough, or too much "local control"?? (not every district is run the same way, and sometimes the local school boards are just abominable...)

Certainly expecting 3rd graders to read doesn't seem unreasonable, and how would you know whether they could if you never gave them a test? Like-wise doing Math...both "skills" require "learning" in order to apply "reason", so simply memorizing a list of facts and "teaching to the test" is not going to do it, right?

This from the article seems peculiar:

Dayton and Utah Republican leaders have taken the unusual step of refusing to discuss HB43 publicly until after their meeting Friday with federal officials. Dayton has said the law's federal intrusion, unrealistic expectations and potential drain on state school funds prompted her to sponsor the legislation.

Sounds like despite the current brouhaha, they're not quite sure of their facts yet? And this makes me instantly suspicious:

Congress passed the law with bipartisan support in 2001, but many Democrats -- including presidential candidates John Kerry of Massachusetts and John Edwards of North Carolina -- have softened their endorsements after seeing how the law has affected schools. Both say schools need more federal funding to carry out the mandates.

I wouldn't go to those two for advice...are they coincidentally right on this issue, or are they simply doing their best to exploit a certain lack of understanding about the President's education plan and incite dissatisfaction and anger with Bush?! Why is it that with all the good teachers out there, their unions always endorse the Democrat party line? "No Child..." notwithstanding, I don't trust those people...

81 posted on 02/11/2004 8:32:38 AM PST by 88keys (are the Bush-bashing Democrat primaries, so beloved by the media, over yet?!)

To: leprechaun9; All; *bang_list

Will someone please post a link to "President Bush's" No Child Left Behind Legislation?

When I posted a link to a .PDF file for HR 936 complete with some remarkable gun control language I was unable to read a single one of some 77 responses before it was pulled by an Anonymous Moderator because "it was not White House Legislation"

If any of you have "juice" with the high command of Free Republic, I would be grateful if you could illuminate this mystery.

Since I dasn't repost HR 936 I will direct any interested readers to http://thomas.loc.gov/ where they can read HR 936 (see Title XI for gun control section) for themselves with the search engine.

It is a legitimate bill in committee with a legitimate companion Senate Bill and if the history of "Campaign Finance Reform" is any guide, some version of this bill will be signed by George W.

Best regards,

89 posted on 02/12/2004 6:00:04 AM PST by Copernicus (A Constitutional Republic revolves around Sovereign Citizens, not citizens around government.)

were you a child left behinf too?

92 posted on 02/12/2004 7:22:29 AM PST by holdmuhbeer

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