Texas vs. California - California may be dreaming, but Texas is working

The National Review ^ | March 14, 2012 | Chuck DeVore

[af_vet_rr]

Before NCLB the government sent millions to the schools with no regrad to outcome. For the first time schools have been CLOSED due to poor teaching programs and bad leaders. Is that not what conservatives are for? Charter schools exist because of NCLB - how is that bad?

First, George W Bush is not exactly a Conservative, nor was his buddy Teddy Kennedy who helped get it to pass in Congress, and we can't forget John Boehner either since he helped it in the House.

Regardless of that, schools and teachers should be the responsibility of the local school districts and the local taxpayers, not bureaucrats in Washington. Just because there are districts where parents and taxpayers don't step up and take responsibility doesn't mean we should invite the federal government into all of the classrooms across the country.

Thanks to NCLB we are cranking out a generation of test takers. I supposed that's good if you want kids to work the counter at McDonald's, but teaching to the test will hurt this country in the long run.

You can be a cheerleader for all you want, but don't come crying when some future version of Obama uses NCLB in a way you don't like.

[af_vet_rr]

Before NCLB the government sent millions to the schools with no regrad to outcome.

By the way, those "millions" were not the property of the federal government to begin with, and they should never have left local districts and states, because those "millions" are what you and I call taxpayer money. You know, taxpayers, me and you, that ever-shrinking soon-to-be minority of folks in this country.

We should not be sending money we need for our local districts to Washington, because that gives Washington the chance to dictate how we spend it, if we even get most of it back.

[DainBramage]

Austin really isnt Texas anymore. Its 2 million Californians who want to change Texas into the home.

[q_an_a]

well you and I would do well to kick a heck of a lot of folks out of Wahsington, that take our tax dollars and spend it like it is their money not ours. I am working to get my congressman, in N. TX to be FORMER Congressman, I hope he loses big time, because he is always smiling when handing out checks to cities, museums etc. etc.

Do you have any idea what the budget for library money is in the Fed Budget? It is $160,000,000. Take fifty or sixty of those programs out of the government, cut the amount of money sent to states from education dept, reduce 1,000s of old regulations that have no purpose and suddenly government is a better size. I am working for change.

[af_vet_rr]

well you and I would do well to kick a heck of a lot of folks out of Wahsington, that take our tax dollars and spend it like it is their money not ours.

Amen to that! When we send taxpayer money off to Washington and have it doled back out by the bureaucrats to the states for education, there's a huge chunk of that money that stays in Washington to pay for those bureaucrats.

I have a feeling that a lot of states that are having problems with funding education wouldn't have that problem if more tax dollars stayed within the state, if not the local districts.

[q_an_a]

You make a couple of interesting points - to say GWB was no conservative is to say that the people he got onto the Surpreme Court are not conservative or that having the money we spend on schools make better schools is not conservative. We would not have a need for NCLB if states like Calif did not get federal money to teach gender studies instead of American History.

Here is a solid fact you can take to the bank, in 2000 80% of all federal and state inmates could not read at 4th grade level. What happens when you get people able to read and they no longer need to steal to make a living? NCLB has improved the 4th and 8th grade reading of TX kids. In the past five years - 10 years after the TX model for NCLB program started our prison growth has been FLAT!! As a supporter of Kiros in TX prisons it is proven that the folks who can read stay out of prison once released at a higher rate than those that can't read. Is reducing CRIME a conservative ideal? Then NCLB may be a big help.

[af_vet_rr]

to say GWB was no conservative is to say that the people he got onto the Surpreme Court are not conservative or that having the money we spend on schools make better schools is not conservative.

It's not saying that at all. GWB oversaw the biggest and most powerful expansion of the federal government in our history. Don't pretend he's a Conservative or defend him by defending his judge appointees.

We would not have a need for NCLB if states like Calif did not get federal money to teach gender studies instead of American History.

Here's an idea: Get rid of NCLB and stop sending education tax dollars to Washington. If the idiots in California want to run their schools into the ground, let them. It should not be the federal government's job to dictate what local schools do with taxpayer money, it should be up to the local taxpayers. If the local taxpayers want to support such idiotic things, let them.

Here is a solid fact you can take to the bank, in 2000 80% of all federal and state inmates could not read at 4th grade level.

Here's a solid fact that you can take to the bank: There are going to be people who do not finish school or who don't have parents that help them succeed in school, and teacher ratios, spending per student, NCLB, or anything else of the nature will not fix it. It's funny you mention Texas, we have a tremendous number of immigrants who do not speak English, do not have anything approaching a high school education, and NCLB is not going to fix that. If anything, it will hurt us as their numbers increase, because their children will drag down our scores and we'll have to spend more and more on ESL.

The federal government should not be involved in local school issues and the federal government is wasting taxpayer money that could be better spent by local schools just by its very nature of existence - for every tax dollar you send to Washington, you do not get a dollar back, not even close.

[q_an_a]

your arguements about how the money is spent is interesting but it fails one test - name one Republican in senate or house that really tried to get the FEDS out of the education business. The dollars come to Washington, the congress devides it up into the various departments, you and I don’t send five dollars to Washington for schools they divide our 100 20 ways including 5 for schools and 5 for defense.