I agree with teaching to the tests. This is material that the kids need to learn. If a teacher objects to teaching what the students need to learn, then that teacher needs to go. I've never understood resistance to teaching basic math and reading (i.e. basic literacy). There is a lot of secondary material that is nice to have, but should not be a priority. If the kids aren't learning to read and write, why should time be made for music, art and sports? Fundamentals come first.
A few years back, the local Sup ventured the idea of eliminating Band (as a class but retained as a extra-curricular) and all hell broke loose........
I didn't say "teaching to the tests" I said "teaching the tests". The teachers get previous year's copies and pass them out to students to take in the weeks previous to FCAT so when it gets here they know "how to take the tests", wasting valuable classroom time learning the tests instead of the basics..........If you make the teachers salary and career dependent on whether their students do well on the tests, then they will do well on the tests, one way or another. Obviously they take the easy way out.......
Because that's not the reason for compulsory, universal schooling. Compulsory gov't schools are and have always represented a means of societal control.