Paige Warns of Education Crisis in U.S.

[Nottingham]

Paige Warns of Education Crisis in U.S.
BEN FELLER
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - The nation's top education official said Wednesday that many minority children are so badly served by public schools that their circumstances can be compared to apartheid.
Education Secretary Rod Paige used his back-to-school address to warn of an unrecognized educational crisis of disadvantaged students who are written off at school and unready for a complex world. He cited discouraging statistics about the performance of blacks and Hispanics on reading and math tests in high school and on college-entrance exams.

"Those who are unprepared will sit on the sidelines, confronting poverty, dead-end jobs and hopelessness," Paige said in a speech at the National Press Club. "They will find little choice and much despair. The well educated will live in a world of their own choosing; the poorly educated will wander in the shadows."
The majority of students falling behind are poor, and "effectively, the education circumstances for these students are not unlike a system of apartheid," Paige said.


snip....

Kathleen Lyons of the National Education Association added: "The reality is that there are groups of children whose progress is being inaccurately measured, and the consequences are huge. This has the potential of harming millions of children

snip..
The NEA contends that Congress and President Bush have failed to provide all the money states and schools need to carry out the law. Paige says the federal investment is larger than ever and enough to fulfill the law's mission.
"The funding issue is a bogus argument," Paige said. "It has no basis in fact, and I'm growing quite impatient with it."

http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/redir.php?jid=b8a96449f392504a


Unfortunately there are going to be many children not graduating highschool because of this! :bounce:

[sfecap]

1. Wonder why?

"The President's education bill is the second largest unfunded mandate (after special education) in the history of federal education legislation. It is the largest reduction of local
school board decision-making power in history."

- Howard Dean



Statement by Governor Dean in Response to the President's Radio Address on No Child Left Behind
Monday September 8, 2003
By: Press Office

(September 6, 2003)

Governor Howard Dean issued the following statement regarding the President's radio address on the No Child Left Behind bill:

"Today the President used his weekly radio address to praise his education bill, No Child Left Behind. Behind his glowing rhetoric is an unfortunate reality: Another broken promise by this President, who has broken his pledge to fund the statute's new demands, creating crushing burdens for local school boards and teachers throughout America. The funding is simply not there, and local leaders already burdened by widespread federal program cuts and strains created by mismanagement of the economy are struggling to find new resources to pay the bill. All too often, the only solution is to raise property and state taxes, giving lie to the notion that this President is a tax cutter. He is simply a tax shifter.

"Secondly, we all applaud the notion of accountability, but the methods in NCLB to measure accountability and promote reform are dangerously flawed. Schools from Texas to Colorado are being forced to dumb-down their tests so that they can ensure "progress" from one year to the next. This is a sham, and a disservice to our children. Worse still, in too many places, struggling students are reportedly being held back or even pushed out of classes and schools in a tragic game to boost average tests scores. Meanwhile, to help schools actually improve, the Administration provides rhetoric without resources.

"It's time we had school reform that works and really does close the achievement gap not empty sloganeering that burdens our schools and sticks local taxpayers with the tab."

www.deanforamerica.com

[ixion]

2. the arrogance of this maladministration is unparalleled

he's 'growing quite impatient'. Well, isn't that just too bad. Perhaps if they had funded the programs, instead of launching unnecessary wars, we wouldn't be having this problem. :grr:

[dArKeR]

10. Arrogance or Corruption? I say Corruption!

[cprise]

3. And not served by private schools... at all

It's distressing that neocons are trying to make schools even worse in order to try and push minorities into their Walmart schools (er, investment opportunities).

[sandnsea]

7. And they're not tested

That's the thing that just gauls me, these private schools aren't even tested!!! They have absolutely no regulations and yet we're automatically saying they're better and funding vouchers to send kids to them. It's total insanity.

[JackDragna]

4. Warns? It's here, folks.

I'm a teacher in training and I read articles about education all the time. Last year, for the first time in US history, we are going to have a net teacher loss..more will leave the profession than join it.

[fabius]

5. My sister can tell y'all about Houston schools...

Her boy could barely read because they spent so much time "teaching to the test" they didn't have time for more individual instruction.

A real miracle.

And by the way they could abolish the "no child left in school" act and give more funding to states.

Isn't paige the guy that edged marginal students out of the system and then didn't count them as dropouts? Sure improved the statistics.

[haymaker]

6. Why doesn't he just make the figures up as he goes along,

just like in Houston. Nobody is checking on these fucks anyways.

[7th_Sephiroth]

8. Is there any chance

that the bush family and other reublicons might be trying to re-segregate schools?

[NashVegas]

11. No, Just Fearful Conservative Educations

Look at what having to compete against other people is doing to US society: we keep our mouths shut because we're afraid to lose our jobs, we're afraid to do a whole lotta things for fear of damaging our economy.

We on DU say we want a whole lotta things to change. The truth is, most of us are too afraid of missing a car/rent/mortgage/insurance etc payment to get off our asses and really do something about it.

When you force schools to compete, you'll see pretty much the same thing. They'll do anything for those federal dollars.

[ProfessorGAC]

9. Well, If Rod Paige Is Impatient With It, We MUST Stop. . .

. . .saying it. We wouldn't want to make li'l Roddy mad, now would we? What a buffoon!

The inequitable funding of public education is an identifiable variable in both test scores and later life success in EVERY school district in this whole country. To even suggest that the funding issue is non-extant is a clear indicator as to how clueless this guy is.
The Professor

[Gin]

12. Hey Ron.....divert some of the billions to rebuild Iraqi schools

back here to cover the unfunded mandate. 20 billion for the US sounds pretty good.