States Try to Fund Education Mandates

[Khephra]

Trying to balance budget worries with demands from the federal No Child Left Behind law, state legislators are planning to press for more money and flexibility to meet its requirements.

State lawmakers, gathering in Washington for three days of talks starting Wednesday, will delve into everything from mass transit to prison industries to states' precarious fiscal health.

But President Bush's landmark education measure tops the many issues before the National Conference of State Legislatures, particularly as sanctions loom for many school districts across the country.

"More and more people are realizing the problems No Child Left Behind will cause," said Jim Dillard, a Republican state lawmaker from Virginia. "It's not only that it doesn't give the money, which it doesn't do, but it has these absolutely Utopian requirements."

more..................

http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-states-education,0,7878661.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines

[ithacan]

1. "No child" law is strategy to destroy public education

The way it dumbs down schools by requiring standardized tests; the way it requires schools to constantly improve scores; to include all students, including those with profound learning disabilities, and all without giving schools the means to do this....

It seems very clear that this really bad legislation is part of the overall strategy of the extremists who control the Republican party to destroy the government, in this case, to destroy public education so that the "churches" can move in an claim this area of social services.

yet one more step on the road to theocracy.

http://www.theocracywatch.org/

[mbperrin]

2. AND a great moneymaker for the companies like

Pearson, a Carlyle branch that WRITES these tests!

[cmd]

3. Rumplestiltskin policy

Teachers are required to spin straw into gold. If they fail, public schools with fail. You tell me how to get a severly handicapped individual to pass a test that is geared for the slightly above average student.

Oddly enough, it is the good schools that will fail first. They have already done their work so well that they can't increase their scores like the poor schools can.

[skippysmom]

4. No Child Left Untested...

...er, Left Behind...

They are setting the public schools up to fail so there will be clamoring for vouchers, school choice, privatization, etc. It's incredibly transparent.

I'm glad some states are fighting back.