In another of President Obama’s new “get tough” moves, he, via executive order, got rid of one of the many bad laws that made up the Bush legacy. Today, No Child Left Behind is history.
From CBS News:
President Obama unveiled the most significant changes to U.S. education policy in a decade, using his executive authority to give states more flexibility to opt out of some provisions of the controversial No Child Left Behind program that was a signature initiative of President George W. Bush.
“We can’t let another generation of young people fall behind,” Mr. Obama told an audience of education leaders in the East Room of the White House.
Mr. Obama expressed frustration with lawmakers on Capitol Hill, who have bickered about the best way to improve the increasingly unpopular program championed 10 years ago by Bush and liberal Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy. Mr. Bush signed the law in early 2002 at an Ohio high school in the congressional district of House Speaker John Boehner, who was then chairman of the House panel overseeing responsible for education.
“Our kids only get one shot at a decent education. They cannot afford to wait any longer. So, given that Congress cannot act, I am acting,” Mr. Obama said.
Video here:
Jerome Blunt: Thanks for chiming in. The bill from the get go was a heavy handed act to shake up the Education bureaucracy, administrators, and school boards spinelessly giving in to the unions. It was never intended to go without change based on intelligent human beings working from the experience of implementation. So now this “impartial” demorat administration will be able to pick more winners (unions) and losers (students). This was the 1st ever chance students had to have teachers held accountable to produce proficient students. Suggest viewing the the video “Looking for Superman” to understand what this waiver business really means. One thing for sure, oibummer’s daughters will never experience the struggling schools of Washington, DC, New York, Philly, to name a few.
The problem is so much deeper than just granting waivers. The entire system is so messed up that there might not be any hope of saving it. I retired after 25 years in the classroom, because I was sick of spending more time on CYA paperwork than teaching. No one is willing to stand up to administrations that are punitive to creative teachers. Since NCLB, all that is valued is proving that your principal deserves his job – even if his doesn’t. In NM, we are graduating a few more students – but only about 10% of them will graduate from college. The ones that do start college are so far behind that they need and entire year of leveling (noncredit) classes. The average 8th grader is 100 times more tech savy than the average teacher, and teachers are failing to use the technology available to the full extent possible. Administrators are more concerned with inane rules that the possiblity that smart phones could be a major classroom aid. There are too many people in charge who cannot seem to think outside the box. I see very little hope in public education.
The problem with this reporting is it leaves out the details of what Obama is moving with this executive order. He may have created waivers for states to not have to meet the requirements by NCLB but instead he places greater regulations on teachers which includes merit pay tied to test scores. This is not the revision of NCLB that we wanted.
Ohh, this is bound to sit poorly with the teabaggers and GOP. All of the right’s actions have demonstrated that all they want to do, aside from making President Obama fail as much as possible and coddle the rich, is keep the working populous poor, unhealthy and uneducated–especially that last one. (Because how else would they buy–I mean–scam–I mean–’earn’ their votes?)
And here is the real problem with politics, is that it all has to come back to which party you’re in. I am a conservative; I distrust the democrats, I dislike the current president, and I prefer the ideas of the Republicans and the previous president. I do NOT like NCLB. I do NOT like the fact that the required curriculum for “social studies” is really “how to make young Democrats.” But I would be just as disgusted were it “how to make young Republicans.” But because the bill was approved by a Republican president, we’re going to forget that it was championed by one of the Democratic Party’s favorite poster senators, and blame the whole thing on the Republicans. I know plenty of Republicans who would be just as happy to see Congress simply dismantle NCLB altogether, and plenty of Democrats who think that it can only be slightly revised. Here’s the simple fact of the matter: NCLB was a bi-partisan construct. It is destroying our educational system, and needs to be dismantled, not just “revised” or “waivered.” And where is the text of this Executive Order? The White House is very good at saying one thing right now, and doing exactly the opposite. Where is the transparency? Where is the trust? Where is the communication?
Funny. Ted Kennedy’s name isn’t mentioned ANYWHERE in the “Legislative History” section of the Wikipedia article about NCLB: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_child_left_behind. Since he “wrote the whole No Child Left Behind bill”, you’d think they would have kept that in there. (I know that’s not exactly what you said…the quote is from another troll, but Ted Kennedy’s name isn’t anywhere on NCLB).
@Jessy, I think I’m going to reply to one of Mr. Troll’s (many many many) spam posts with your post. Hope you don’t mind :3
If you’ll scan through, you’ll see I already did the honors of CTRL+C+CTRL+V-ing after EVERY single comment. : )
But thank you.
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 was initially proposed by President George W. Bush. The bill itself had four coauthors: Representative John Boehner (R-OH), Representative George Miller (D-CA), Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH).
“And here is the real problem with politics, is that it all has to come back to which party you’re in.”
Directly followed by
“I distrust the Democrats…” etc.
…HUH?
But really, I do realize both parties have their own flaws and drawbacks, but if you’ve been keeping up with the news (and by that I don’t mean what’s funneled in by FOX) and keeping up with the scoreboards, the right almost always seems to be the side behind holding back progress, keeping the wealthy in yachts and caviar, stunting education and scientific progression (in favour of religion) and the basic rights of the less-favourable (read: non-white, non-male, non-rich, non-Christian, etc)
In short, today’s GOP/right wing is the greater of the two evils when it comes to most things concerning the general public and not the pampered few.
Today’s GOP. Not a decade ago when the bill was legislated. (though it wasn’t exactly stellar then either) As you probably know, politics are ever-changing with the times and with faces that come to represent them, and the party of today is probably not the party of yesterday (nor the party of tomorrow). Abraham Lincoln was a Republican, and I sorely doubt he’d recognize either party if he were to come across it in the present.
LL: Thanks for your input (?). The bill from the get go was a heavy handed act to shake up the Education bureaucracy, administrators, and school boards spinelessly giving in to the unions. It was never intended to go without change based on intelligent human beings working from the experience of implementation. So now this “impartial” demorat administration will be able to pick more winners (unions) and losers (students). This was the 1st ever chance students had to have teachers held accountable to produce proficient students. Suggest viewing the the video “Looking for Superman” to understand what this waiver business really means. One thing for sure, obummer’s daughters will never experience the struggling schools of Washington, DC, New York, Philly, to name a few.
Happy Day. Even if they could pass the test, they did not get a comprehensive education, art, history, music, philosophy,,they just pass the test.
Unfortunately, they still won’t get a comprehensive education. With the looming budget cuts, the first things cut will almost certainly be the arts…