Monday - August 08, 2011

How Obama Fixes Education

Obama Administration Exempting Schools From Federal Law’s Testing Mandate

State and local education officials have been begging the federal government for relief from student testing mandates in the federal No Child Left Behind law, but school starts soon and Congress still hasn’t answered the call.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan says he will announce a new waiver system Monday to give schools a break.

The Obama administration requested a revision more than a year ago. Duncan said another school year is about to start and state education officials have told him they can’t keep waiting for relief from the mandates.

“I can’t overemphasize how loudly the outcry is to do something now,” Duncan said.

Duncan has warned that 82 percent of U.S. schools could be labeled failures next year if No Child Left Behind is not changed. Education experts have questioned that estimate, but state officials report a growing number of schools facing sanctions under the law.

Are you kidding? Fire the whole damn lot of them, throw out the unions, throw out the lefty namby-pamby touchy-feely bullshit, and get back to actually teaching. My bet is that improvements could be made overnight. We’ve had nearly a decade of this program, with all sorts of milestones and tracking and accountability markers. Why are we hearing this bullshit now? How dare they! Why are the schools that haven’t made the grade for years even still open? Why is their a single carryover teacher or administrator working there? They all should have been fired years ago. But oh no. Instead, the first cheat was to redefine the meaning of “proficiency” and to set the bar nice and low in most of the states. Then a long term plan to eventually someday meet those “tough” standards went in ... in other words, while the school systems have been busy Hating Bush, they’ve been busy spending trainloads of federal dollars, and doing just about dog-squat to make things better. And now they want a Note From Mom getting them out of gym? Hella no!

9 years is 2/3 of an entire scholastic generation, from 1st grade to high school. The Class of 2014 ought to be bleedin geniuses as far as I’m concerned. At the very least they should be acing these exams. It’s not like NCLB is all that demanding. No, it’s because our education system sucks, and almost nobody in it has made any real effort to improve things a jot. All they’ve done is increased spending, given themselves great big raises, and loaded the school systems down with excess management. And all those billions? Up in smoke. Don’t even ask, because no paper trail will ever be forthcoming. Teaching? What’s that??

And what of the tens of millions of students? Will they now not graduate? Or will they get their slip of paper, and never even have the smallest shot at college or the jobs market, because they can’t read, write, or do even simple arithmetic. I don’t blame Bush. And I don’t blame the students. I blame the school systems, and I blame the parents.

No Child Left Behind is exactly what the federal Department of Education should be doing: setting national standards, and then going away. No money to hand out, no involvement in state affairs, no keeping of statistics. This is the test. You take it in the 4th grade, and if you pass it you go to the 5th grade. There is another test you take in the 8th grade; pass that and you get to go to high school. There should be a final one for would-be graduates. Pass that, and you can have your diploma. Fail any of the tests and you are automatically enrolled in intensive summer school, at the end of which you get to take the level exam again. Pass it and move forward. Otherwise you get left back and have to repeat 4th, 8th, or 12th grade all over again.

Yes, under the Drew Plan you could have 21 year old “kids” graduating high school. Gee too bad. At least they’ll know how to read and count change.

Naturally, it’s only fair that if teachers have more than X% of failing kids in their group, then they lose their jobs as well. Might have to set up some kind of entrance exam to make sure all teachers not only know their subjects, but know how to teach.

Posted by Drew458     on 08/08/2011 at 03:57 PM   
Filed Under: • Education •  
• Comments (3) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

DISCLAIMER

THE SERVICES AND MATERIALS ON THIS WEBSITE ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE HOSTS OF THIS SITE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO THE SERVICE OR ANY MATERIALS.

Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
2. Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
3. Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere

It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

THE INFORMATION AND OTHER CONTENTS OF THIS WEBSITE ARE DESIGNED TO COMPLY WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THIS WEBSITE SHALL BE GOVERNED BY AND CONSTRUED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND ALL PARTIES IRREVOCABLY SUBMIT TO THE JURISDICTION OF THE AMERICAN COURTS. IF ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE IS CONSTRUED AS BEING CONTRARY TO THE LAWS APPLICABLE IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY, THEN THIS WEBSITE IS NOT INTENDED TO BE ACCESSED BY PERSONS FROM THAT COUNTRY AND ANY PERSONS WHO ARE SUBJECT TO SUCH LAWS SHALL NOT BE ENTITLED TO USE OUR SERVICES UNLESS THEY CAN SATISFY US THAT SUCH USE WOULD BE LAWFUL.

Copyright © 2004-2015 Domain Owner