10 states flee ‘No Child’ law
February 9, 2012 at 6:00 pm in West Central Tribune
WASHINGTON It could be the beginning of the end for No Child Left Behind.
The goal was lofty: Get all children up to par in math and reading by 2014. But the nation isn’t getting there, and now some states are getting out. Continue Reading
When I was taught civics and the workings of government, I thought the Congress made the laws, the President signed the legislation inot law. Should there be a problem with the law, the Congress had to revise legislation and the President to sign the revised law. Apparently we only need “waivers” to change policy to garner votes in this day and age. This comes on top of the “compromise” or “modification” to the health bill the general population has not liked. Why don’t we just fire Congress, saving a lot of money to be used to retire the debt since the Senate has not been able to pass a budget for the past several sessions, and continue with the President calling the shots? That way we only have to suffer incompetent policies for four years, instead of six years, regardless of party affiliation. .
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bobk, So TRUE. This is the 3rd or 4th time in the last 2 or so years that President BHO has over-ruled a U.S.A., Federal Statue or Law, one of which he had had passed on his behalf by him and or his orders. To mention some of the Statues he will not enforce or allow,are as follows. DOMA, NCLB, and as the updated news just told us , his Obamacare and his rule or enforcement of Making all Catholic entities to pay for Birth Control , and morning after abortion pills ( the pill business he is keeping real quiet, but is part of obamacare) in their health insurance plans.. Out side of his executive orders, who in the world ever knew he could re-write Federal Statutes himself and not get Congress into the act.? I for one , never knew that.
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One has to take note of the first ten states announced reveals the campaign strategy being deployed in advance of the election coming up.
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This is just another example of a long list of government failures. The bureaucrats feel that they need to get regulate something that should be guided and directed on the local level. The “Big Brother” approach, or one size fits all has proven to be the failure it is. It’s sad it took so long for this day to arrive. Now that this failure is uncovered, they’ll prove just how inept they have crafted the health care law. Hopefully it will be discovered as the failure it is, long before this boondoggle.
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And just who instituted this fiasco?
In ’02?
Well, surprise, surprise! None other than GWB!
Just one more thing the little man left us.
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bac, while your selective “history” may have started yesterday, historical facts show a much broader support to bring the legislation to the desk of GWB to sign.
“There’s probably not a better example of Ted Kennedy’s skills as a legislator than his work on No Child Left Behind, the law that Sen. Kennedy, Democratic Rep. George Miller, Republican Sen. Judd Gregg and GOP Rep. John Boehner worked on with the Bush administration in 2001. It didn’t start as conservatives trying to get liberals to sign on, or liberals trying to get conservatives to sign on. It instead started with both sides meeting in the middle and figuring out a way to produce a bill they both could support”. “In 2001, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., voted for the No Child Left Behind Act.”
What has happened is the outcomes that were required to meet the goals have never been achieved. So that we don’t have “egg on our face” or have our failures known, we just give waivers to set more goals which will probably never be achieved. Some people call it “dumbing them down” , I don’t know what to call the changes.
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I do agree the this had bipartisan support, however bob I do believe that it was one of the cornerstones of President Bush’s campaign for President in 2000 election.
This bill had good intentions but it’s failure was very early when they expected every State to reach a certain level but allowed each state to use different measuring tools to show it. There never was one test given to all American Students to measure achievement, and the rigor of each test varried by State.
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cpm3, yes, I know the bipartisan support but had to correct the individual who believes GWB was the only person to assign responsibility.
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I hear you bob but are you denying that NCLB was a Campaign platform for President Bush in 2000?
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cpm3, no , I have not said this was not nor denied(your suggestion)of being a President Bush campaign promise. I am just stating to the poster it was a bi-partisan program, Bush may have had the promise, but many from both sides of the aisle, jumped on the bandwagon to pass the law.
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OR-states have been asking for waivers so they decided to try them out? There has been so much complaining, carping,crabbing, etc. etc that “the government” doesn’t listen to the people. Now they have and you’re STILL complaining, carping, crabbing. NCLB didn’t work so they are trying something else-giving control back to the states, which brings it much closer to local control. Now what’s the problem?
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purplegirl, let me ask you this. We have heard the standards were impossible to meet and were not meeting them. Too many failing students and very little progress being made. We also heard the students were “taught” to the tests. We heard the “tests” were not really a measuring progress in the right manner.
So now will the tests be more related to progress or will the standard be lowered so we will be able to measure progress? Will we be able to avoid “teaching” to the test? Will “local control” be standard to all schools or will we adjust standards to fit the schools? The last question is who will set the standards? Will the standards be state sequestered or will they be regional and/or comparative to other states? Since federal funds will be going with the waivers, why weren’t all 50 states granted the waivers? IMHO, it appears the President and his people have chosen to pick winners and losers from among the 50 states.
While I am not harping or crabbing, I think you would agree there must be some motive behind what they are doing or what they have done and some legitimate questions of why they did what they did.
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Our school board will have to come to grips with more decisions.
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Bob the story tells us that there were only 11 States who asked for this and 10 were given it with New Mexico still working out details. It also says that 28 more are preparing to ask for the same opportunity. Doesn’t look like anyone picked winners and loosers.
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cpm3, until I see the rest of the states being granted waivers to which the total should be 50 states, I will then agree there were no winners or losers picked. By now we have learned many lessons from that of what we had been told and from the reality of what happened.
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Bob you are wanting to find something to be angry at here and that is too bad. The facts remain the facts 11 states applied, all had the chance but only 11 did so first. 10 were granted that 1 is still working on it. 28 more are going to apply bringing the total to 39 out of 50. How you can say that there are winners and loosers is beyond me if the other 11 choose not to get into the game.
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cpm3, angry , again your suggestion, is far from the truth. I am frustrated in having a president satisfying certain groups of people for political gain than for the common good of the people. The program was for the ability to surpass math standards by the year 2014. Were we accomplishing the goal? No, but I wiil agree some of the methods of measurement were incorrect and should have been changed – we knew that from the start. Why weren’t they changed in 2009 and 2010 when there were campaign promises to change NCLB? Shouldn’t the Congress have been instrumental in making changes to the law rather than one branch of the Government granting waivers? That is frustration on my part, not anger as you suggest. MIght add, we have added another program of The Race to The Top – will we be granting waivers when that does not perform to our liking?
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Everybody gets to have a trophy!
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bob first let me appologize for using the term “angry”.
Bob again the States that were granted the waiver APPLIED for it, they were not selected. There is a big difference Bob. That is where I think you are misleading.
Race To The Top is not at all the same as NCLB Bob, there is nothing punitive built into it. It is about creating workable, successful and recreateable models for Early Childhood. The measurements are yet to be defined, and are focused on the programs so that they can be changed and adapted to assure the best for the earliest learners.
There are many good things in NCLB that I hope will continue even if Minnesota is not involved, but I am glad that we are now focused on allowing teachers to teach and students to learn instead of focusing on tests and more tests!
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cpm3, apology accepted.
Are you in the education field or are you in the early childcare field?
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Neither field Bob but I am a parent who has children in school and pre-school and so I am involved in their lives which includes listening and learning about the issues.
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bac, just hate to disappoint you but have probably pulled more time in beanfields, beetfields, and corn fields than you could probably count.
Plus, I follow education issues and try to have a perspective which will improve education once it is taken out of the political arena, which it entered in the ’60s.
Just keep up with the remarks as it shows you probably should have spent more time in school.
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cpm3, yes, while I do not have children in school, I do have grandchildren who are just starting the school route. My only hope is we can get the education of our children out of the political football arena and get them into something that is meaningful and will not saddle them with a tremendous debt when they graduate or when they want to attend college or advance their education beyond that.
Like you, I follow what is happening very much, along with my wife, who was an educator.
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I agree with you 100% about education not being used as a political football! Both parties are guilty of doing this while claiming to be pro-education. I do believe Bob that giving Minnesota a break in NCLB will mean that more local control can take place, and I believe that it is those on the local level who are in a better position to know what needs to be done for the students.
I do like Race for Top in that they are not simply giving an unfunded mandate but actually giving dollars that can be invested into early childhood education on a more local and state level with the local control. I think Minnesota has a strong history in knowing what is best for students and I am excited to see what they can do with this funding to help these early learners.
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