Set Our Teachers FREE!

PETE and REPEAT
If you’ve been reading this blog for any time at all, you already know everything that Tommy Thompson and Roy Barnes have to say in their article published today in the Washington Times.com.

Tommy Thompson, a Republican, is former secretary of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and former governor of Wisconsin. Roy Barnes, a Democrat, is the former governor of Georgia. They co-chair the Aspen Institute’s Commission on No Child Left Behind.

“Yesterday, across the United States, more than 7,000 students dropped out of school. And the same number will drop out tomorrow, and the next day.

“This statistic is staggering, to be sure, but it’s not the only worrisome one. Every day we see evidence we are also letting down far too many of those students who remain in school. Far too few of our students are even minimally proficient in reading and math. Even our best and brightest students have difficulty competing with their peers internationally. And the achievement gap between our most and least advantaged students is still far too wide.

“And now, as our students are buckling down to complete their work before the holiday season, members of Congress are about to take a winter break without completing theirs.

“The reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) lies dormant as Congress and the president have allowed their political differences to stall progress on making needed improvements to the law. They blame each other, interest groups and politics for the failure to move a bill. The losers are our children, teachers and parents who demand better schools and better results.”

I’m sure these gentlemen are both very nice and very bright people, but they are “just about a day late, and a dollar short” as my grandmother used to say. 1) Readers of this blog have been aware of these facts for a long time, and 2) Why can’t they see that NCLB is not the answer?

These gentlemen are both from the political arena, so it doesn’t surprise me that they are advocates for No Child Left Behind. NCLB has been politically motivated since it’s inception.

While I disagree with both men about the wisdom of continuing with NCLB, and their optimism that bipartisan efforts will move a bipartisan NCLB reauthorization bill in an election year, I do agree with three things they state.

• First: “. . .urgency (is) needed to address this issue that is so critical to our children’s futures as well as our nation’s economy and competitiveness in the world. Parents, teachers, students, and business, civil rights, and higher education leaders are calling for action. We have a responsibility as a nation to take bold steps to accelerate progress in closing achievement gaps, erase low graduation rates that still plague our schools, and ensure that all children are prepared for successful and productive lives after graduating high school.”




• Second: “. . . we should leave the door open for innovation and compromise. There is ample room for compromise and innovation that will accelerate progress and make a good education a reality for every student.”




• Finally: “Congress needs to make education legislation a priority in early 2008, before the presidential election hits full swing. . .”

In “Set Our Teachers FREE! A Plan to Save Public Education”, Don Kingsland explains how political interference in our schools has contributed to the bureacracies that hamstring our local public schools. In The Kingsland Planhe offers a complete solution for achieving excellence in public schools nationwide without the crippling techniques of NCLB. Why should we continue to spend billions of dollars on a plan that causes more problems than it fixes? Let’s try common sense for a change.

As Governors Thompson and Barnes say in the conclusion of their article,

“America’s parents, teachers and students deserve attention now. To paraphrase famed baseball manager Yogi Berra — “It can get late, early.” —

I could’na said it better myself.

Brennan

Filed under: Education Reform