The No Child Left Behind Act

[Republican_Man]

I couldn't think up anywhere else to put this, so I decided to do it here.

I just wanted to state something about which some of you may well be amazed: Tonight I argued, at a Speech and Debate Congress, for a resolution supporting the repeal of the No Child Left Behind Act.

My arguments were entirely different from everyone else supporting the repeal, however, and I couldn't have disagreed more with their points, for mine was based on the assertion that the act expands the scope of the federal government with regards to education to too great an extent and hurts states in the process, as do virtually all major federal government education acts (i.e. Clinton's ESEA law) because they put too much of a strain on the states with all sorts of underfunded mandates and so forth.

So, yeah. I actually argued against the NCLB Act, and I never thought I would until today when I was thinking up my case and realized just how flawed it is.

But the reason why I'm posting this here and not in my TIM is to open up a discussion. What does everyone here think about the NCLB Act? Should it be repealed? What portions should be repealed? Why? In other words, I wanted to open up to discussion of this legislation.

It's been shown to succeed in many different areas and has some good ideas, but the flaws associated with such a large scope of federal government inclusion in the education system is too much.

[Lord Borg]

I don't know all the particulars, but I have heard it had some problems here and there, and I thought of some, but I cannot remember any at the moment. What is the bill? I dont remember what it does.

[Republican_Man]

Wikipedia has some good info on it for you. It's biased against the legislation, but it's got a good deal of info there.

[Lord Borg]

Ah...I can see where there could be some problems, the Education is still to generalized for the overall population. While it "works" there are many things that could be done. I can also see the teaching requietments being a problem, they suddenly changed the requirements to be a teacher, and now suddenly you have current teachers that do not meet the requierment. Yeah, I know what the answeer could be "Go back to school and get your degree" yeah, right. When you have a family, and a teachers salery? Yeah, right. The tests dont look to good to be.

It looks like one of those things that look good on paper, and in the short term look good, but the long run? Nuah.

[WeAz]

It looks like its all flash and no meaning.

[Republican_Man]

Those aren't even the problems I would really argue. I would argue that it simply oversteps the bounds of the federal government. The federal government is telling states to meet all these requirements, and then it's not funding it, and the states have to push out their own money, often tight, to fund it - to fund a federal government program.

If the states have to rely so much on their own for an act of the federal government then that's just too much. The fed is putting too much of a strain on states here. What the fed should be doing is simply stating, "Here are the basic standards for the nation," one or two other things, give a guide for how to go about it, do some funding, and stop there, as far as new legislation goes. It shouldn't put all these federal mandates in place and not provide for it.

There's a history for federal government education programs not being properly funded, as I said happened with Clinton with this ESEA program he had in place, so this is nothing new, and it goes to show you just how stupid it is for the federal government to work to become the central power for education. It doesn't fund it and makes all sorts of regulations that can hurt local and state governments which should have more specialized education for certain economic needs in the region, particular state occupations, and so forth.

I blindly supported NCLB for the longest time and now I'm generally an opponent because it's wrong for the federal government to make so many mandates and then strain the states further by not providing the appropriate funding and so forth.

The fed should make few national policies and stick with that, as far as I'm concerned. Otherwise they're just going to squeeze the states and withdraw from them states rights which they deserve, especially when it comes to education.

But this is what you get when you have a big government Republican wanna-be conservative team up with Ted Kennedy, liberal senator extraordinare.

[TrekkieMage]

I'll answer more thouroughly tomorrow, but here's my opinion:

It should be replealed. What should happen after I'm a little more up in the air on. My vauge opinion right now is that public education in America is messed up and needs a lot of fixing. There is too much inequality and a distinct lack of standards in the school system, and it's not something that can be fixed with excessive testing.

[webtaz99]

[TrekkieMage]

Not entirely. The problem is that there is no single standard for our schools.

I was lucky, I lived in a county that spends a massive amount on education and I had the choice of four different public high schools with various programs (alternative education program, bilingual, IB, AP...). There's also a bilingual middle school, and two bilingual elementary schools. And a Career Center where I got the chance to take *ground school* to get the first part of my private pilots licence.

Then there are the schools who don't have enough books.

They don't have enough classrooms.

They don't have enough teachers.

Their buildings are falling apart.

And all they can afford to focus on is getting half decent standardized testing scores.

I think one of the best things we can do given the current state of the school system is set federal standards of finances, materials, and buildings. Then set up ways for underprivilaged schools to recieve the funding they need. Then have the local authorities distribute the resources where they are most needed.

I think that once we get the materials, the buildings, and the standards (not ten million bubble sheets - community service and well-rounded education) set, the quality *should* follow.