States fight No Child Left Behind, calling it intrusive

USA Today ^ | February 11, 2004 | Greg Toppo

[cogitator]

Two years after President Bush signed his far-reaching education reform law, lawmakers in Virginia, Utah and seven other states are taking steps to opt out or block using state funds for No Child Left Behind, calling the law an intrusion on local control. The Republican-controlled Utah House of Representatives on Tuesday approved a bill that would exempt the state from spending its own money on the law. The state Senate now considers it.

[cogitator]

This might turn into a minor presidential election issue.

[FourPeas]

bump

[Major Matt Mason]

Two years after President Bush signed his far-reaching education reform law, lawmakers in Virginia, Utah and seven other states are taking steps to opt out or block using state funds for No Child Left Behind, calling the law an intrusion on local control.

Gasp! How dare these far-right wingnuts oppose this wonderful bill proposed by the Greatest President Ever. Don't they know that they should be happily accepting these mandates while simultaneously praising George W. Bush and trashing conservatives? These legislatures better get with the program PDQ (/sarcasm)

[CSM]

Anyone have any good links to articles or summaries of the actual law?

[drjulie]

The government web site: http://www.ed.gov/nclb/landing.jhtml
This will give you the "warm fuzzy" viewpoint. It's an awful law and it will be gone within several years (after schools have wasted vast sums of time and money). One-size-fits-all mandates from Washington are not the way to solve problems.

[CMAC51]

Jennings says 28% of schools risk being labeled "in need of improvement" under the law.

Is he trying to say that there aren't 28% of schools that need improvement? I find that hard to believe, no matter which state he is talking about.

[CSM]

What a convuluted and terrible read. I couldn't take to much of it. Thanks for the link, it will come in handy.

[ladylib]

To prove what a joke it is, a well-regarded high school in my county (with average SAT scores of 1200) and which sends its graduates to the best colleges and universities in the country is now a school "in need of improvement" because some special ed kids didn't take the tests.

People will probably ignore this law, especially if they feel that their schools don't deserve the stigma.

One size does not fit all. "One size" is a joke.

[drjulie]

"People will probably ignore this law, especially if they feel that their schools don't deserve the stigma."

I agree, in a few years essentially all schools will be labeled as failing because the standards are impossible. People will ignore the designations because they will be meaningless. I admit that there are some bad schools out there....but the patrons of those schools already know their schools are bad.

[Jack Wilson]

This law is something Democrats might have come up with, but not Republicans.

[INSENSITIVE GUY]

Intrusive huh?It should be.Up till now its been,"no teacher left behind"!When in the past the government would throw more money at education it just simply went for high pay and benefits.

[reformedliberal]

If the states opt out of the program, they don't get the Federal funds.

One more budget cut.

If opting out and "thumbing their nose at the Federal Government" becomes the techer unions/states MO on this, for how long will we need or have a Department of Education?

[ladylib]

The "Department of Education" should have been abolished years ago.

We don't need a federal "Department of Education." We need local control over public education. Unfortunately, a lot of educrats in the past 30 years or so have used public education as a petrie dish to experiment on kids when their parents weren't looking. That's why the US government is butting in now, because the US government realizes that public education is a failure. However, I don't think George Bush and Rod Paige have all the answers either.

Bring back local control of public schools -- where parents and school administrators agree on what they want for the town's children. Bring back church schools where religous authorities and parents agree on how they want their children educated. Say NO to a national curriculum in public schools, because eventually, that national curriculum will impact private and religious schools.

[ladylib]

Well, the Number One Republican, George W. Bush came up with it. Of course, his "buddy" Teddy Kennedy also signed on.

To tell you the truth, I don't think Bush really read the bill -- which is as thick as a telephone book. He just wanted a bill to sign.

It's just so Utopian and so unworkable.

[reformedliberal]

I totally agree.

My point is that the Bush administration, IMO, is setting up the process to do just that: refusing the Federal money. And if it works, it is the NEA and the liberals, chanting "Freedom From Government", who will do it by leaving.

In several states, the teachers, the districts and the states are discussing just that. Now, the states don't want to pay for it, either & the standards still have to be met, as I understand it. Maybe these districts who are so exercised will decline Federal money, raise their money locally and insure that the parents will then demand access and accountability.

The result could be the quiet demise of a quaint old institution that is no longer even remembered.

There is also a Federal DOJ case going on against the NEA and some state teachers unions. Political contributions and embezzlement, IIRC. I don't have the links, but you may actually know more about these cases.

Again: like the WOT, some things are high profile, some are covert, some we'll never know and some we find out about afterwards.

If this tack isn't successful, we still have accountability in place for now and can work on making the DOE even more odious to the Left.

Congress made the DOE by act of law. No President can arbitrarily abolish it. No president so far has even tried, including Reagan. No Congresscritter has gotten anywhere trying, if any even tried. So it has to be attacked on its flank.

Ditto NEA: every museum. ballet, symphony in the country depends on those grants. It has been their playmoney, allowing them to put on *edgy* exhibitions guaranteed to irritate all of us and gain them lots of press, lots of admissions, catalog sales and donors. So, the administration has earmarked the funds for Anglo-American heritage art, music and writing. Shakespeare instead of the Vagina Monologues, jazz and blues and show tunes instead of 3 minutes of static or rap or whatever.


I am an artist. I can tell you that the shock Left has no interest in anything like this. So, they will still have their shock exhibitions, but they will not be eligible for grant monies for it. If they want to do real art& culture, then the funds will be available (and these grants are monitored)and our culture-starved citizens will at least be able to see something of merit. NEA grants will become much less attractive. Funding will quietly shrink, w/no outcry because the constituency has no interest in living totally off grants if they have to perform and produce to a standard or within any parameters at all, for that matter. Today, they just write the grant professionally and get paid to do that and then pay for the production of vile, untalented stuff.

I have watched this administration closely. I have seen this pattern over and over. They understand the Left and they time and again seem to pull incredible coups out of seeming nowhere just when we are all screaming that they are FUBAR.

I see similar patterns everywhere. Towards privatization, limits on the arts, accountability for the schools and incentives to not take the government money.

The Left hates Bush w/such a passion because he is is dismantling their Empire.

Dems play hearts. W plays poker.

[reformedliberal]

I personally think that Kennedy got totally screwed on this bill. He certainly hates it enough. He has been screaming like a stuck pig.

If Kennedy hates something that much, I always want to know why.

[Tares]

bttt