Inside National Education Association (May 2006) President's Comments, No Child Left Behind attacked

NEA doesn't just monitor home education...they have been fighting it with moola and dirty tactics for decades. In fact the DNC incorporated word for word the NEA stance (anti-homeschool) into a plank at the 2000 convention. The Republican convention showed a pro home education position in several speeches. Those who are HS activists are repeatedly targeted. This is a frontline of the political war zone. The reason why?

http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v7n8/

I didn't want to oversell but I look at NCLB as a one size fits all attack on local schools that are dominated by liberals in administration and local school boards.

It puts schools in the position of having to teach reading and writing so that children will actually be able to pass reading and writing tests.

My wife was a literacy tutor twenty years ago and yes adults graduated from high school in my area not being able to read.

NCLB is a start but school choice got left out for non-public schools. That would really put the liberals on their toes. As it is if schools fail liberal administration stands to lose their jobs and that makes the union (NEA members are administrators, too) mad.

Who's telling those parents you hear say nasty things about NCLB? Are they National Education Association members who happen to be parents or are they being fed this line from adminstrators, teachers, etc?

By the way, Rush Limbaugh, who's spoken to parents just like you do came back with the line about more Clinton in history class last week.

Oh yes, my local school district is blaming the need to hire more people on NCLB. Special reading teachers have to be hired to back up the regular teacher even though class sizes (liberals swear by them) are always under 20 students. I went to schools with class sizes of 25-30.

NCLB is no more a bureaucratic nightmare than the other ones big government imposes on us.

I wish we had conservatives leading in local communities, but liberals run the show and you buy the line they lead you with. NCLB, flawed as it is (federal control), is the only weapon we have to make sure Johnny can read and write when he gets out of school.

Its about time teachers, students and parents all care about education and take it seriously.

As for teachers, here's a real story I learned from a local school staff member. When teachers met with the school superintendent one of their concerns was whether or not the insects in the schools were being exterminated in a "humane" way. No Kidding.

I am a parent and I stay in touch with my local schools. I talk to people who work in schools and even my children's teachers on occasion. My older daughters have difficulty with reading but my younger son is catching on quickly. I think NCLB is having a positive impact in that area at his elementary school level.

I agree that the Department of Education should go, but I think that liberalism is a disease that has permeated the schools worse than the Communist undergound of the 1940's.

Last year I read the book "I Led Three Lives" by Herbert Philbrick. He infiltrated the Communist Party in the 1940's and spied on them for the FBI.

They were into everything even helping political campaigns of non-Communists. The Communist Party wanted Philbrick to remain a Republican and a member of a Baptist church.

When on assignment to infiltrate civic groups and take them over for the Communists, Philbrick would identify himself as a Baptist.

Some outfits (Communists) were so bad they needed the FBI (Feds) to take them on and spy on them to boot.

We've haven't gone that far with the National Education Association and schools, but for now NCLB will do and I hope it can be improved upon with school choice for non-public schools, too.

But my hope is that good leadership will emerge in local schools and the liberal dominance will be someday a thing of the past.

Yes, we need consevatives to rise up and take back the schools and run for our local school boards. And we need to stick by them when the Education Association pours money in to take them out in elections like has happened in my area.

I know Ted was brought in in the phony spirit of "bipartisanship".

But I think the scheme you talk of is doomed to failure because if students fail under NCLB principals will lose their jobs and eventually there will be calls for state takeover like is happening in Baltimore right now.

Corrupt superintendents like the ones you describe are a big city thing and only one of the sixteen school districts in my county is a "city" district, with that kind of superintendent turnover.

And why shouldn't students take tests that will make them proficient in reading and math. My son is doing well in reading and I believe NCLB is having a positive impact on his performance.

If they get out of school being able to read and do math they will be able to get jobs.

Students have graduated from schools being unable to read and spell. Its about time that stopped.

Actually the scheme I described is happening at a medium sized Texas school district. The Superintendent has had 2 high school principals in the last 3 years and has had to replace about 90 teachers(at the same school) during the same period. He obviously doesn't care how many people he goes through or careers he ruins. He did the same at the last district he was at and I'm sure he'll be leaving soon to start over the process somewhere else.

I'm all for improving education, but you don't do that by teaching the students just how to take a test which is what NCLB does.

To improve education, what's expected of the students has to be increased, real discipline needs to be introduced into the schools and an alternative track established for those who just don't want learn and disrupt the students who do.

"NCLB is a bureacratic, nightmarish money pit that no conservative should even consider supporting. From other comments, it appears you think it will somehow magically remove all liberal ideas and teaching from the schools. Believe me, it won't."

Clearly you haven't read all the particulars of NCLB. If you had, you'd realize just how fully we have the Marxists by the balls. Their demise is only a matter of time--and NCLB (big government hassle that it is) is merely the means to that end.

So you actually couldn't be more wrong...as long as Congress doesn't go wobbly.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.