Bush faces growing revolt over education policy

[sabra]

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyID=2005-09-02T151222Z_01_EIC254745_RTRIDST_0_POLITICS-EDUCATION-REFORM-DC.XML

Bush faces growing revolt over education policy

HARTFORD, Connecticut (Reuters) - Daria Plummer, a bespectacled suburban school teacher, is not your typical activist but she is now on the front line in a revolt against President George W. Bush's signature domestic policy.

As a veteran teacher in the first state to challenge Bush's "No Child Left Behind" education law in court, Plummer voices the frustrations of those who oppose the policy's strict, federally driven testing regime.

"More and more we are living in fear of the tests," said Plummer, 62, from her classroom in a middle-class Connecticut suburb. "We are taking the child out of the equation."

As schools open this week, 47 states are in some "stage of rebellion" against the 3-year-old policy, according to a study by the Civil Society Institute, a nonpartisan advocacy group. About 20 states may opt out and forego the funding.

[Wickerman]

1. wheels are falling off all his carts

Well, they were never actually on tight, the media is just finally noticing.

[patrice]

4. Fuck the Media traitors!!!

Every day I feel better and better for dumping cable - and it wasn't because I can't afford all of the cable I want. I dumped it because I hate what they do.

[VegasWolf]

6. Bush says, "The Wheels go round and round, round and round!" nt

[jsamuel]

2. "revolt"? thems fighting words

[habitual]

5. REVOLT

[calimary]

14. Uh HUH! REVOLT.

:toast:

[AverageJoe]

3. The NCLB policy is horribly misguided

It does nothing but promote rote learning and fear of catastrophic failure among our children. Like everything else Bush touches, NCLB is rubbish.

[DBoon]

8. IN other words NCLB prepares them perfectly for life in Bush-world

"rote learning and fear of catastrophic failure"

Life in the USA as a cheap labot 3rd world country.

[DBoon]

9. dupe

dupe

[Eurobabe]

7. Bu$h is facing a growing revolt over more than just his education policy

eom

[callous taoboy]

10. I teach third grade-

I have had kids get physically ill before the test, and a majority of my class this year listed it as a top concern. Even some of my really bright kids fear failing the test. I have a student this year who is repeating third grade because he failed the reading test last year. He is one incredibly jaded young child.

[belle]

11. I overheard some NY'ers ranting about it in the subway just the other day

[ozymandius]

12. Is there now ANY doubt the we are witnessing the paragon of

incompetent administrations?

Even newly out of the box - NCLB was clearly a plan to de-fund public education.

[JoFerret]

16. Absolutely

...in the guise of raising standards it is another sorting device to keep the elite where they are and the poor in their place. Independent schools are not subject to its provisons.

[calimary]

13. Hopefully, bush will face a growing revolt over EVERY policy.

Only question is - whatthefuck took 'em so long? I guess a conventional nudge or alarm clock isn't enough to wake up a lot of American Rip Van Winkles. They need a smack upside the head with a two-by-four.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

15. This residency holds a prominant spot in the anals of US History

Right at the sphincter.

[R Hickey]

17. Bush is doing to the Public Education System as he did to New Orleans

Bush's mandates, whether they're for pointless, unfunded tests, or for de-funding New Orlean's levee maintance, always have the same disasterous results.

Bush's rich friends always get richer, and the middle class always gets stuck holding the empty bag.

[Mithras61]

18. Maybe he's facing a revolt over his education policies because...

his education policies are revolting. Many studies over many years have ALL determined thqat high-stakes testing is counter productive. He's trying to trash the public education system for the rest of the nation like the 'pukes have done to TX, but the rest of the nation has caught on!

[Roland99]

19. There's going to be REAL revolt before long

[Deja Q]

20. The *R* word, for real?!

:wow:

I know a lot of people (otherwise halfway decent repubs) would rather put their kiddies into private schools, but wouldn't fixing the public schools be a more preferable, and less controversial, solution? No more voucher crap so people can go to fundie schools that probably teach less real-life stuff than public ones (which also have their share of pablum...)?