Sec of Ed: Beyond my mistake, my real frustration (union heads oppose all educational reform)

Houston Chronicle ^ | February 29, 2004 | Rod Paige, U.S. Secretary of Education

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Education secretary sticks by criticism of teachers union

***He charged the NEA with encouraging a "coalition of the whining." He called other education reform critics "nihilists" and made unflattering comparisons to French U.N. diplomats and racists. Paige impoliticly suggested last year that schools with a religious environment were preferable to public schools with diverse values.*** Source

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Lend your support: Rod.Paige@ed.gov

[LiteKeeper]

read later

[Cincinatus' Wife]

***The old system -- the status quo -- is one we must fight to change. President Bush and Congress understood the urgency of the situation and set in motion a process to fix the problem: the No Child Left Behind Act. The law requires schools to give all students a quality education, provides accountability and choice for parents and insists that teachers be highly qualified to teach -- in other words, that they be knowledgeable in the subjects they are teaching -- which is just plain common sense. ***

[Keith in Iowa]

>>... common sense.

Common sense is an oxymoron.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Common sense certainly is endangered if you attended mass education.

[AUH2OY2K]

"...one in six African-Americans and one in five Hispanics are proficient in reading by the time they are seniors."
How can this be? The African-Americans are born in this country while many if not most Hispanics are born in non-english speaking countries.

[NewRomeTacitus]

He seems to be a good man, but he backs up my opinion that the Department of Education should be dissolved. Not only is education "local business" of the most personal sort that should be overseen at the state level, his department is a magnet for these "whiners" who impede progress.

All centers of power are targets of special interests. I don't know if the founders considered such when they tried to insure that the states retain more power than the central government.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

"...one in six African-Americans and one in five Hispanics are proficient in reading by the time they are seniors."

With Ebonics and bilingual education driving the huge dropout rate, these numbers are not surprising. And these numbers also depend on the meaning of proficient.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

I believe the Bush Administration has created a window, a visual and physical portal, through which Americans can see behind the NEA curtain of lies and get out. If No Child Left Behind helps to clean up mass education, it will have served its purpose. Of course the unions are screaming bloody murder.

[Principled]

Yes the NEA is really, really, bad for US students in public schools. But dammit "No Child Left Behind" is no better.

If we want top-notch education then we must get government OUT of education and return 100% of the control to individuals. Run education like a business - have parents choose (gasp) where they send their kids while choosing the tuition they wish to pay.

Schools will still have to be subsidized to a certain extent by LOCAL and STATE taxes (- but not fed taxes)because the amount of tuition should be nominal and vary depending on demand. Why would we have ever agreed to send a chunk of money to DC so that we could be coerced into undesired behaviours just to get our money back???

Teachers and administrators should be accountable to parents, not some federal bureaucracy. When parents hold the cards, education will be good. When government holds the cards, education is just another political tool.

JMHO

[Cincinatus' Wife]

There can't be an instant reversal of what has taken almost 50 years to create. Parents and taxpayers must come to the realization (and believe it is their idea) that mass education has sunk into a dark pit and reforms (not more money) are in order. In the meantime, parents are getting the help they need to get away from these unlearning centers.

[Principled]

There can't be an instant reversal of what has taken almost 50 years to create.

Well I guess we'd have to define "instant"... but eliminating the US Department of Education would be most of the battle. USDOE's main purpose is to reallocate funds based on whatever political pet project has the day. This year, it's "No Child Left Behind".

If the funds were never collected in the first place, States wouldn't have to do stupid things to get the money back... they could just do what they think is right (ie NOT what fed says they must do).

I do agree that the 2nd phase of my modest proposal would take more (much more) time.

It would be hard to convince some folks that paying out of pocket for at least a portion of education would simultaneously give them 1000% more say in what schools do AND improve the overall quality of education (due to parent control).

Again, JMHO. But I do know a lot about public schools with respect to the incongruencies they face. "Do we do what's right, or what'll keep us out of trouble?". Sadly, many choose to saty out of trouble (keep their jobs) to the detriment of education.

It's one of the main reasons people leaved public education (there are others tobe sure, but this one is big). People get into education, generally speaking, to help students. When they find out that they are actually prevented from doing so, many leave for greener pastures. Do you blame 'em?

"No Child Left Behind" will have the same effect. It won't help any student at all. It will, however, give politicians some stumping sound bites and push even more quality, capable individuals out of the business of helping students.

I know there are a lot here who instanlty reject anything positive about teachers. My bet is they aren't a teacher, don't know one, and that they are not at all involved in their community's public education program. If otherwise, they would know that it is the UNION that's the problem. Teachers aren't the bad guys... of course every segment of the populaton has its wackos, and I'm sure teaching is no exception. But it is not the case in my community that teachers are all lefty/commie/union supporters. The majority in my community are republican in their view son education - because teachers want choice. Unions don't want choice, teachers do.

BTW what are you doing up so early? And what's your take on the national retail sales tax now that the flat income tax is no longer the lead horse?

[Cincinatus' Wife]

I'm always up early.

You make many fine points about education. Unfortunately the media has made it clear they will never call the NEA on being a union with an agenda. Nor will they regularly report the huge impact teacher's unions have on politics (money, muscle and classroom indoctrination) so the public continues to delude themselves, putting bumper stickers on their cars, taking the easy path by averting their eyes and attention away from the mass education failures. The Bush administrations focus on education failure is forcing them to assess the situation and to look critically at the wailing and foot stomping of the unions. Parents need to know teachers are not required to have an emphasis on their subject matter to earn a teaching degree. Bush wants them to know.

***The old system -- the status quo -- is one we must fight to change. President Bush and Congress understood the urgency of the situation and set in motion a process to fix the problem: the No Child Left Behind Act. The law requires schools to give all students a quality education, provides accountability and choice for parents and insists that teachers be highly qualified to teach -- in other words, that they be knowledgeable in the subjects they are teaching -- which is just plain common sense. *** - Rod Paige, Secretary of Education

I believe the administration knows this will not correct the problems but it will create the atmosphere for change and discredit these unions that are strangling education.

___________________________________________________

Taxes: They're dropping on the federal level but being raised through state and property taxes on the state level. We need tax reform big time. We need to spend less on government and spend more where we choose. God help us if a democrat sits in the White House.

[Check6]

"No child left behind", from what we can learn of it, is a pathetic disaster for the President. Someone in his administration actually thought the NEA could be bought by a Republican.

The practical effects of this program that I have heard about are insane and destined to backfire in a big way. Large chunks of local system monies are being diverted to buying textbooks in Spanish and other language in a program that fosters bi-lingual bull and exacerbates the growing language problem and cultural "Balkanization".

[Born Conservative]

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[Cincinatus' Wife]

No, Bush isn't trying to buy the NEA, he's exposing them for, and I'll use Secretary Page's accurate characterization, the terrorists they are.

[JOE43270]

I totally agree with the Secretary. Unions may have been good a hundred years ago but the have become one of the bigger problems. The children are the first ones losing because of them and the tax payers are the second. A lot of the children that are graduating, that is what they are calling it, can't read the second grade reading book.

[Swing_Thought]

NCLB has done some good. At least it's shining light in some previously dark corners - such as the highly qualified teacher thing (even though highly qualified is newspeak for minmally competent in the subject matter).

But anyone who believes that NCLB is going to change public education dramatically is kidding themselves. The devil's in the details, and from what I can see, Bush's DOE is not holding feet to the fire.

For example, a central tenet of NCLB is that, in order to graduate, kids have to be minimally competent as measured by standardized tests. In my state (VA), we already had a state testing program in place before NCLB came along, so it's our standardized test that they have to pass. This year's seniors are the first to have to meet the new requirements in order to graduate. The (original) requirements are minimal; kids must pass reading, and writing taken after grade 11, and one test in math, one in science, one in history/social studies, and one of their choosing. Tests are offered in a multiple subjects in each content area (i.e. Alg 1, Geometry, and Alg II in Math).

So far so good, but of course when it became apparent that many of this year's seniors couldn't meet this standard, what did the state DOE (with the permission of Bush's DOE) do? The graduation requirements (for this class and two other "transition" classes) were watered down to just having to pass the english and four other subjects of the student's chosing. So if the kid can pass earth science instead of Algebra, that's okay.

And when it became apparent that this STILL wasn't watered down enough, they decided that the kids didn't really have to pass the test. So long as they took the earth science test twice and came close at least once, the local district could assign him a project which would count for the test.

What are these projects? In many cases, nothing. (wink, wink).

Some kids still can't make it? That's okay, they can substitute "certifications" in vocational areas for any of the tests (except English). So now a "homemaker" certification can be substituted for Algebra.

In the end, of course, very few seniors will not make the cut, and all the politicians of both stripes will clap their hands and claim success - the Republicans saying thanks to NCLB, the Dems saying the success came in spite of it. And the teacher's unions will say "see, teachers ARE doing their jobs"!

But what will have occurred - any my guess is this is occurring nationwide - is just a huge cover up.

I don't know what the answer is, but I'm tending to the "disband federal DOE and public education completely" solution. (Imagine how much worse this would have all been under a Dem administration!)

One thing I know for sure... NCLB sure ain't the answer.

(Bookmarked: Wish I could stay and discuss this - but I'm off to the golf course!)

[Cincinatus' Wife]

A lot of the children that are graduating, that is what they are calling it, can't read the second grade reading book.

Taxpayers should demand accountability for their education tax dollars. Teachers should demand accountability from their unions. Both are rampant with fraud, graft and incompetence. Parents should demand results from their children before handing them perks.