Kucinich on Failure of No Child Left Behind Act

[goodhue]

Kucinich on Failure of No Child Left Behind Act

"Today’s news report highlighting the failures of the Houston school system is an ominous warning of the failure of the 'No Child Left Behind' Act promoted by this Administration. The 'No Child Left Behind' Act is based on the Houston program and is bound for the same problems unless immediate action is taken to reform education in this country.

"This Administration, and Republicans in Congress, have turned their back on the our nation's students and teachers. The President's budget request for FY ’04 underfunds his own bill by almost $10 billion. And, the Republican controlled House plan would underfund the bill by almost $8 billion. This is unacceptable, and our children deserve better."

http://www.kucinich.us/index.php

[Wetzelbill]

1. Dennis is a man with a plan.........

too bad most people just don't get it. The world would be a better place with him at the helm of the free world.

[redqueen]

2. He's got the best handle on the 'vision thing'

We need a leader like DK, we really do.

Go Kooch!

:kick:

[LWolf]

3. I talked to him about this last summer

in Santa Ana. As a teacher, it was the one issue I needed to hear more about. He jumped right in and nailed my concerns before I even mentioned them; you'd think he'd been hanging out in classrooms and staff lounges the last year or so.

In my professional opinion, he has the best education platform.

[a_lil_wall_fly]

4. LWolf....

My sister is a Title I Federal Grants Cordinator for before/after schools programs..it is a living nightmare for her now.

[LWolf]

6. The whole mess is a living nightmare.

I have to work hard to manufacture a smile when I show up to greet my kids. I can't find a single member of our staff who isn't doing the same. I pass them in the parking lot at 6 or 7 or 8 at night; they stop to talk before heading home. They are crying or in a rage. Every night.

And it isn't any different at the 24 other schools in my district.

Right now we are taking on other duties before and after school, mostly unpaid, to keep the district running. I'm on one committee of teachers that manages the district's G.A.T.E. program. There is no one at the district level to do so. I'm on another managing the district's libraries. Again. No one at the district to do so. It's all about budget cuts and layoffs. Some of my other "extra duties" include monthly parent education at our school site, and monthly parent meetings at the district level. I'm barely keeping up with actual classroom duties. And that isn't pretty, either. More mandates, narrower choices, more stuff crammed into a finite amount of time. A combination class, doubling the lessons taught each day. And I have no life. An increasing frenzy of demands, with virtually zero support offered to achieve them. Now we're being urged to work an extra hour before school offering programs for title I kids. We'll be paid $25 for the hour we spend with them. No pay for planning/developing whatever program is to be offered. And they can't figure out why no one is jumping for the chance to earn that extra $25. After all, it's one extra duty that will be paid!

They just don't get the math. I'm already there 12 hours a day. Sometimes 13. Where is this extra hour supposed to come from? By next year, they'll set up a bunk so I don't have to waste time going home.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

7. Anyone who bitches about teachers having "three months off"

needs to go "shadow" a public school teacher for a week or two.

I may have mentioned this before, but a few years ago in Portland, one of the right-wing columnists in the Oregonian was always spouting off about how easy teachers have it, so some teachers in one of the suburban districts invited him to spend a week teaching English and journalism classes.

Needless to say, the reality of dealing with five groups of thirty to forty teenagers per day was a tremendous lesson for him.

[a_lil_wall_fly]

10. Linda...yeah...

I remember that article...and I think that he is truly pro-teacher as much it pains him to remember that time period.

[JohnKleeb]

5. Thanks Wolf, I think he has a great education platform too

Too bad there werent people like him many years ago, then all my grandparents and aunts and uncles would be college educated. Still if we had his education plan, more people would be in school, and above all more people would have more knowledge and be more smart, a smart, knowledgable nation is often a great nation.

[no name no slogan]

8. Thanks for posting this

It's really sad to see how simple the solution to this is: more money for the schools to tackle these "mandates" handed down from the federal government.

And where can we get that money from? How about from the sweetheart deals the pentagon is making with Boeing? Or how about from SDI, which has been in development for over twenty years, and STILL DOESN'T WORK?

It's funny to see the hand-wringing that goes on with the some of the other candidates regarding some very basic core Democratic issues. To address them, we need somebody who's willing to stand up for what's right, who won't back down and who will make the tough decisions, no matter how unpopular they may be with the "powers-that-be".

Our public education system is on the verge of complete collapse, yet nobody wants to make the tough decisions to save it, and to make k-post-secondary education a right, not a priviledge for a few. That man is Dennis Kucinich.

[diamondsoul]

9. But the guy who actually uses

that grey matter between his ears isn't "qualified"!:eyes: :puke: :grr:

Sorry having a bit of a rant from the "longshot" thread here. Prepping for my meetup tonight and I think I'm going to bring up the education platform since at least one of our voluteers is a teacher. I suspect that's one issue we need to push at least locally if not Nationally.

Off the topic- I was thrilled to discover that Eric Blumrich, author of some of the best web-animations I've ever seen (including my alltime most favorite song these days "Ignorant Son of an Asshole"!) has made an animation for the Kucinich campaign. It's powerful enough that I got chills and gooseflesh while watching it.

http://www.kucinich.us/dk.html

[GreenPartyVoter]

11. Bu$h's education policy sucks eggs

It's designed to lump all kids, including Special Ed ones, into the same testing group so that schools WILL fail. And once that happens enough times, the masses are supposed start screaming for Bu$h's voucher system. But the sort he has in mind will never work.

What will end up happening is our kids (and ultimately the bulk of our population) will become less and less well-educated.

Which, of course, was Bu$h's plan all along. He doesn't want an educated electorate that will see his policies for what they are--monumentally disastrous.

KARL ROVE, Bush's long-time political guru and White House advisor: "As people do better, they start voting like Republicans... ...unless they have too much education and vote Democratic, which proves there can be too much of a good thing."

[goodhue]

12. kick n/t