No Child Left Behind.....Insanity....(long post, sorry)

[AnnInLa]

There have been many discussions about NCLB here on DU, but if you are not directly involved in public education, you may not take a really active interest in it, understandably. The public knows that, generally, the Democrats, NEA, and most school districts dislike the act because of the lack of funding for it from the feds. But,DU knows that it is the most blatant push yet (well, before the SS attempt) by the bushies to privatize everything. The lack of funding is only the tip of the iceberg of why we all should actively oppose NCLB, even if we are not involved with education. For example:

Here on DU, you probably know that, deep inside of NCLB, there is a clause that requires middle and high schools to report contact info re all students to military recruiters unless parents specifically opt out.

So, in an attempt to help every citizen be knowledgeable about the insidiousness and insanity of an act that purports to "improve" the quality of American public education, here is another tidbit you may find interesting:

NCLB says that schools that don't make "adequate yearly progress" for 3 years, must pay for tutoring for low-income students. But, you may ask, who provides the tutors? The law says they can come from PRIVATE COMPANIES, RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS, just about any non-education group that has a "record of effectiveness" and meets "reasonable" criteria set by the state. But, that leaves out the most obvious source of tutors: the school district itself...the Ed. Dept. says that if the district hasn't met "adequate yearly progress," that proves the district is not effective, so can't hire teachers to tutor students. While these districts can't use their own teachers as tutors, Private Companies CAN, REPEAT, CAN hire the same teachers to do the same work. And altho NCLB must employ 100% "higly qualified" (read: meet a lot of bullshit, impossible criteria) by the end of the 2005-06 school year, the states are FORBIDDEN TO APPLY THAT SAME STANDARD TO PRIVATE COMPANIES AND RELIGIOUS GROUPS AND OTHERS THAT SUPPLY THE PERMANENT TUTORS.

If you are still reading this, and are not bored to tears, consider the campaign by Lily Eskelsen, Secretary of NEA, to inform citizens about the perils of privatization: Her main points:

Privatization and the people behind it, deserve much more scrutiny. The dismantling of public education, Social Security, Medicare, public employee pension plans, and virtually every other gov't program has the ultimate goal of turning them over to for-profit enterprise. Privateers really do intend to suck the lifeblood out of all public institutions. The strategy of privateers is three-fold: 1. Money: Make sure there is never enough funds to properly run quality public programs. Promote tax cuts for the wealthy and recommend cutting programs which the wealthy don't need. Bad-mouth public programs and whip up hatred of all taxes, so people will resent paying taxes for those underfunded, then eventually underperforming, public programs. 2. "Choice"....You never hear privateers say that they want to destroy popular programs that parents, seniors and consumers like. Instead, you hear words like "choice" and "ownership," such as, We want to give you a choice in your Social Security or schools or public utility. That's just market-speak for "We're going to erode a public community service so that we can give a for-profit opportunity to our cronies." 3. Accountability: One of the hallmarks of this privatization strategy, is that private entities don't get saddled with the same onerous regulations that get put on the public sector. Example---public schools in Washington DC get rated by a single test, but private schools that receive voucher money don't have similar accountability.

Of course, all DUers know about the strategy of the GOP to dismantle public programs and support the privatization of EVERYTHING, but every once in awhile, I like to see it repeated here in a usually, long and boring, post, lol.

Source: NEA Today magazine, January 2005

[iconoclastic cat]

1. Not that long, not boring,

and really fucking scary.

[Systematic Chaos]

2. We need more posts like these!

Don't be so critical. You've done an outstanding job of clarifying just what a horrible mess our public education system is in. Thank you for taking the time to explain this to us.

[China_cat]

3. One of the biggest problems

we have here with NCLB is the requirement that schools show improvement over previous evaluations. We have schools that are meeting all criteria set, leaving no room for 'improvement' and as a result end up failing the 'adequate yearly progress' test.

It's like making all A's on your report card all through school but not being allowed to graduate because you didn't make 'significant improvement' each year.

[hfojvt]

4. Only ten senators voted against it

Including Wellstone, Dayton, and Feingold (and Helms, but he was absent). Here is some of that Wellstone said:
"In 1979, close to 12 percent of the Federal budget was devoted to
education. It is now down to 7 percent.
If we just were where we were in 1979, 30 some years ago, we would be allocating an additional $21 billion to education today. I have heard colleagues say that this is all about equal opportunity for every child. There is nothing I believe in more. I know Senators can agree to disagree.
If I had one vision, one hope, one dream that I cared more about for Minnesota and the country than any other, it would be that every child, starting with the littlest of the children, regardless of color of skin, urban/rural, income, gender, every child would have the same chance to reach her or his full potential. That is the goodness of our country.
When I was in Phalen Lake school yesterday, that was the goodness of that school, those teachers and what they were trying to do under
incredibly difficult circumstances. I wish I could believe that this
bill lived up to that promise. When I look at the resources, it
doesn't.
Make no mistake about it, a test every year doesn't give our schools the resources to either recruit or to retain more teachers. A test every year does not lead to smaller class size. It doesn't lead to better lab facilities. It doesn't lead to more reading help for children who need the help. It doesn't lead to better technology. It doesn't lead to more books. It doesn't lead to making sure the children are prepared when they come to kindergarten. Many of them are so far behind. It doesn't mean we will have afterschool programs. It doesn't mean any of that.
I am all for accountability. I am all for testing and accountability to see how the reform is doing. I am not for the argument that the actual testing represents the reform.
We have done one piece, the accountability. We haven't given our
children and our schools and our teachers the resources they need.
One final time, I have shouted it from the mountaintop 1,000 times on the floor: Mr. President, you cannot realize the goal of leaving no child behind, the mission of the Children's Defense Fund, on a tin cup budget. That is what you have given us.
I vote no."

Still, arguing that NCLB needs more funding is qualitatively different than arguing that NCLB is a bad program.

[buzzards97]

5. Further Comment

As an administrator that works in a public school system, it is further interesting to note that schools can fail to meet AYP in many ways. If any subgroups (low socio-economic, ethnic, or disabled) to name a few of the bigger ones, fail to make adequate progress the entire school then ultimately district fails. So currently, our district (among numerous in WI) are in the "failing" process due at present to our students with special needs. They have not made the amount of progress that the NCLB demands...therefore we are soon to fail. Now, this would be a population of under 25 students. So, our entire district will fail because of this small group of students that one could predict wouldn't make the progress as their non-disabled peers. It isn't hard to predict that most districts in WI will be failing within the next few years. It is also important to remember that WI has traditionally scored within the top 5 states for many years on ACT scores. It is my hope that public education can withstand the next four years. I work in a rural community and I would hope that citizens will fight for their kids to get an education and be able to salvage public school education. I suspect that this administration also wants to demolish special education along with public school education. Why should we bother with these kids that are disabled, would be the attitude I suspect this administration holds. Sad.

[newyawker99]

10. Hi buzzards97!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[TrustingDog]

6. kick. this one is too important to drop off.

[AnnInLa]

7. My personal reason for posting this, uh, post

Consider this parallel:

As Dems, we have been discussing/arguing about whether to move right to more "centrist" stands on issues, or to hold the line on our liberal-Progressive views of issues.

Ever since NCLB, the NEA, the largest professional association in the country, has tried the "centrist" approach, saying that the GOAL/INTENTION of NCLB is well-meaning, while attacking the individual "merits" of NCLB, such as lack of funding, reporting student info to military recruiters, the emphasis on high-stakes testing, the unrealistic demands on teacher qualifications, the penalties for falure to "improve" individual schools, etc, etc, ad nauseum. To the tax paying public, NEA had to be perceived as also desirous of improving public education by providing a quality education for all students.

Now, however, it looks to me as if NEA has decided to play hard ball. It has attacked the stated GOAL of NCLB. It has come out in its national magazine, saying that NCLB is simply ONE PART of an overall, insidious GOAL by the corporate-controlled bush administration to dismantle all public programs and turn them over to corporate privateers.

For NEA to talk about the NCLB as part of the effort to privatize everything that is now public, is astonishing to me. NEA is not a group of tin-foil hatters...they see the big picture, and are reporting on it, honestly. NEA has apparently decided that moving centrist on the issue of public education is not working and is now making a stand, based on their opposition to a corporate America, especially the corporatization of education.

At first NEA said to bushco, We applaud your goal of improving public education in America and agree with it, but we don't like individual parts of your plan, and we don't like the non-financing of the plan. Now NEA is saying to bushco, We think your stated goal is bullshit, you are not trying to improve education, you are just including education in your plan to privatize everything.

Am I reading too much into new stand by NEA?

[LWolf]

11. Better late than never.

I believe the reason so many dems voted for it in the beginning has to do with the stated goal: closing the achievement gap. Democrats can't or won't be seen to oppose legislation that purports to make sure the rest of the nation gets the same quality education as the middle class white.

The fact that the legislation does nothing to close that gap, but is heavy on placing blame and destroying public ed as "punishment" seemed to have skipped their notice. It's not the first, or only example of this administration using words to label something the opposite of its reality, is it?

Do you mean NEA Today? Is there a link? I found this:

http://www.nea.org/neatoday/0501/coverstory.html#coverstory

Deciding The Game Plan

So what strategies hold promise? NEA Today looked at five communities where NEA members are trying to shrink the divide with innovation—around parent involvement; early childhood education; smaller class sizes and more intimate schools; incentives to lure experienced teachers to needy schools; and professional development to help educators become more culturally sensitive to the needs of their diverse student body. They are in no way magic bullets, but the results so far are encouraging and could well inspire.

As Weaver notes, "We alone can't close the achievement gap. But with parents and policy makers and students working together…yeah, we can do it."

And this article about Eskelsen's campaign:

http://www.nea.org/neatoday/0501/leading.html

<snip>

The presidential election has been decided, but educators don't need a crystal ball to predict the future. When it comes to public education, says NEA Secretary-Treasurer Lily Eskelsen, the Bush Administration has made it clear: the more "private" the better. That would be more vouchers, more private school tuition tax credits, more contracting out of public schools services. In short, more serious efforts to privatize public schools.

It's time to sound the alarm, says Eskelsen. Privatization—and the people behind it—deserve more public scrutiny, she says. And over the last year she's been on a personal crusade to give it just that. She's been speaking to groups both inside the Association and out about its perils. But her message isn't just about run-of-the-mill outsourcing, such as using private bus companies or corporate cafeteria workers. It's about privatization with a capital P, where the ultimate goal, she claims, is dismantling public education, Social Security, Medicare, public employee pension plans, and virtually every other government program—then turning them over to for-profit enterprise.

I'm still looking for a statement directly linking NCLB to the privatization effort. I'm more than ready to play hardball. :evilgrin:

[Plaid Adder]

8. Thanks for putting this all in one place.

That way, we can refer people to it when they ask what's the matter with NCLB. It's too long to explain every time it comes up.

This all started with bullshit for-profit educational "alternatives" like the Edison Project and Channel One. As I was just saying to Liza this morning, I wish that just one time I would see a Democratic politician get up and say, "Look. The Republican party's real position on public education is that it should not exist at all. When they talk about education 'reform,' what they really mean is 'destruction.' They're not trying to make the system better, they're trying to dismantle it."

Just once, before I die, I'd like to hear that said on the floor of the House or the Senate. Just once.

Sigh,

The Plaid Adder

[TrustingDog]

9. they too, would say it only once before they die...

either politically or...
I'm almost joking. uh, not really.