Reports this week surfaced that President Obama was prepared to end No Child Left Behind, the landmark education legislation from his predecessor, George W. Bush. While it is clear NCLB has led to many children being left behind and our public schools dependent of following its strict guidelines in order to receive federal funding, what is unclear is what is next for education.
President Obama should be applauded for attempting to improve our failing education system but if anyone thinks the next great educational reform will result in much change, they are wrong.
To begin with, no matter what plan the President puts forth, Republicans will balk at it. Why would they give up on their plan for Obama's? "But this will be another chance for the two parties to come together in the name of bipartisanship and put forth a better education system than is currently in place," you say. Actually, this is more likely to lead to another game of political chicken. If you really think the Republican Party would not shut down our public schools before signing off on a new education act then you really have not followed what goes on in Washington D.C.
With the 2012 election campaign in full swing, the president has fired a volley to all who want his job. He is telling them, "Let's hear your plan" and it better go beyond the Republicans desire for more charter schools (private schools at the tax payers expense).
With the economy still in tatters and Obama's poll numbers in decline, the president will put forth a plan that reminds voters that despite the sagging economy, he is still the candidate who has the best interest of all in mind. Let Republicans and Tea Party members argue about school prayer, tenure, and the dangerous agendas of special interest groups taking over our schools. These are mere smoke screens meant to make voters forget there is no real education plan being presented by Republican candidates.
When the president puts forth his plan for education, it will be a plan and not an attempt to force our schools to capitulate and teach all our children in an overly managed, under budgeted, and formulated manner; something the Republicans can claim credit for today. However, by the time our representatives in congress fight over what to include and toss, it will neither resemble the President's plan or lay down the real ground work necessary to improve the futures of our children. And in the end, it will be our children who lose out.
1 comment:
It is only a matter of time before another destructive political attention grabber hits the junk pile. All educators and anyone paying attention knew that NCLB was flawed from the beginning. It was always about political grand-standing. Instead of helping education it made it much worse.
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