Every child left behind

[starroute]

A few weeks back, someone was asking for more details on the No Child Left Behind Act and how it was designed to destroy public education. I couldn't find a good source at the time, but this article, which appeared last week in a Minneapolis paper, gives a first-rate rundown on the problems.

http://www.citypages.com/databank/25/1214/article11955.asp

"As the auditor's report points out, putting schools and districts on a failure list can have a negative effect 'on parents' perceptions of schools (and their enrollment decisions), on the morale of school staff, and on the NCLB sanctions to which schools are subject.' But the experiences of Edina and Franklin Elementary are but one small byproduct of legislative actions and bureaucratic decisions related to NCLB that will surely discredit, and are likely to bankrupt and dismantle, our public education system.

"Under the terms of NCLB, which President Bush has called 'the cornerstone of my administration,' all of the nation's public school students must be tested in reading and math every year in grades three through eight, and at least once in grades ten through twelve. Any school receiving federal Title I money (ostensibly earmarked to improve the performance of disadvantaged students) faces increasingly harsh sanctions if its test scores fail to meet state-defined standards for making adequate yearly progress. After two years of AYP failure, the school must offer students the option of transferring to another public school in the district and bear the cost of transportation. After three years, the school must also offer low-income students tutorial services through a public or private agency approved by the state. After four years, the school district must take corrective actions such as removing personnel or changing the curriculum in the school. And after five years, the district is obliged to blow up, or 'restructure,' the school by replacing most or all of its staff or by turning over operations, as the U.S. Department of Education puts it, 'to either the state or to a private company with a demonstrated record of effectiveness.'

"With reasonable guidelines and adequate funding, this timetable might have been a prudent course of education reform. But as the first sanctions are just now begininng to kick in, people across the country are belatedly discovering that NCLB is being structured and implemented as a punitive assault on public education, designed to throw the system into turmoil and open the door to privatization."

[tnlefty]

1. Thanks for posting this!

I e-mailed it to myself so that I can print it and then send it through my address book.

[LastDemocratInSC]

2. I recently heard a teacher refer to this as ...

No Child's Behind Left

[HEFFA]

3. NCLB needs to be exposed for precisely what it is: a thinly veiled

political assault on schools. The current regime is using this program not as a "compassionate conservatist" approach to reform, but as a tactical effort to gut the system and provide support for vouchers. The influence of the far-right elements of the Republican Party is clear on this one. The corporate element is alarmingly visible here, too.

Thanks for the post. I think that it's important to keep this issue on everyone's front page.