Even Conservative "Red State" Indiana Hates NCLB
Indiana House: No Child Left Behind Goes Too Far
As a result of subscribing to about twenty different news outlets via e-mail, I get all kinds of reports. It just so happens that this one demonstrates the contempt with which even conservative "red states" like Indiana has for the NCLB.
In addition, CATO Institute has been reviewing the NCLB dilemmas and have concluded that NCLB is less than workable, and probably not worth renewing even if it is improved.
Commission Reviews No Child Left Behind
"A private bipartisan commission yesterday said Congress, as it renews the No Child Left Behind law, should move toward national education standards and tests that states could voluntarily adopt," according to The Washington Times. The commission "suggests that a national panel be created to come up with national standards and tests for reading, math and science. The proposal recommends the standards be voluntary for states. States could opt instead to alter their existing standards or do nothing, but the government would examine these states, compare their standards with the national ones, and make the results public, the report says."
Reacting to the commission's findings, Neal McCluskey, policy analyst at the Center for Educational Freedom and author of the forthcoming book Feds in the Classroom: How Big Government Corrupts, Cripples, and Compromises American Education, says, "No top-down standards and accountability scheme can withstand the dumbing-down forces of politics. The teachers unions, administrators associations, and numerous other interest groups whose members would be held to high standards will exercise their outsized political power to ensure that standards stay low, while parents and students %u2013 who have no rich, full-time lobbyists will lose yet again.
"The only way to create real accountability is to give parents the ability to take their children, and the money attached to them, out of schools that are failing them and put them into schools that work, including private schools. Only then will schools and districts have to improve their product rather than their ability to manipulate government if they want to stay in business. Unfortunately, the commission chose to ignore real parental choice and to stick with top-down methods."
As a result of subscribing to about twenty different news outlets via e-mail, I get all kinds of reports. It just so happens that this one demonstrates the contempt with which even conservative "red states" like Indiana has for the NCLB.
The House voted 56-40 today to pass a bill barring the federal No Child Left Behind educational standards from being used as a basis for accrediting schools or hiring teachers in Indiana.
Rep. Peggy Welch, D-Bloomington, told her colleagues that two schools in her district were deemed failing schools because of issues involving special education students, even though the schools had otherwise met educational standards.
Rep. Bob Behning, R-Indianapolis, said that while many people share concerns that the federal act had gone too far, House Bill 1389 might also go too far. He said the state Department of Education was concerned that the bill could cost the state millions in federal education funds.
Welch, though, argued that school accreditation and hiring practices should be a decision for the Indiana legislature, not the federal government. And she said it had not been proven to her that the bill would cost Indiana federal funds. If it did, she promised her colleagues, she would kill the bill.
The issue now moves to the Senate for debate.
In addition, CATO Institute has been reviewing the NCLB dilemmas and have concluded that NCLB is less than workable, and probably not worth renewing even if it is improved.
Commission Reviews No Child Left Behind
"A private bipartisan commission yesterday said Congress, as it renews the No Child Left Behind law, should move toward national education standards and tests that states could voluntarily adopt," according to The Washington Times. The commission "suggests that a national panel be created to come up with national standards and tests for reading, math and science. The proposal recommends the standards be voluntary for states. States could opt instead to alter their existing standards or do nothing, but the government would examine these states, compare their standards with the national ones, and make the results public, the report says."
Reacting to the commission's findings, Neal McCluskey, policy analyst at the Center for Educational Freedom and author of the forthcoming book Feds in the Classroom: How Big Government Corrupts, Cripples, and Compromises American Education, says, "No top-down standards and accountability scheme can withstand the dumbing-down forces of politics. The teachers unions, administrators associations, and numerous other interest groups whose members would be held to high standards will exercise their outsized political power to ensure that standards stay low, while parents and students %u2013 who have no rich, full-time lobbyists will lose yet again.
"The only way to create real accountability is to give parents the ability to take their children, and the money attached to them, out of schools that are failing them and put them into schools that work, including private schools. Only then will schools and districts have to improve their product rather than their ability to manipulate government if they want to stay in business. Unfortunately, the commission chose to ignore real parental choice and to stick with top-down methods."
posted by Jim Downey at 4:21 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home