The soft bigotry of a bad law

Jewish World Review ^ | 9 Dec 2007 | George Will

[Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus]

No Child Left Behind, supposedly an antidote to the "soft bigotry of low expectations," has instead spawned lowered standards. The law will eventually be reauthorized because doubling down on losing bets is what Washington does. But because NCLB contains incentives for perverse behavior, reauthorization should include legislation empowering states to ignore it.

NCLB was passed in 2001 as an extension of the original mistake, President Lyndon Johnson's Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which became law in the year of liberals living exuberantly — 1965, when Great Society excesses sowed the seeds of conservatism's subsequent ascendancy. ESEA was the first large Washington intrusion into education K through 12.

NCLB was supported by Republicans reluctant to vastly expand that intrusion but even more reluctant to oppose a new president's signature issue. This expansion of Washington's role in the quintessential state and local responsibility was problematic for three reasons.

[cinives]

JWR has it wrong - neither the states nor the feds educate kids well. Public schools were bad before the feds got involved, and then they only got worse after that.

Get government out of education, period.

[Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus]

JWR has it wrong - neither the states nor the feds educate kids well. Public schools were bad before the feds got involved, and then they only got worse after that.

Pardon me. I forgot to apologise in advance for posting a column by George Will.

[cinives]

LOL Years ago I kinda liked George Will. He’s gone soft in the head these past few years.

[antinomian]

LOL Years ago I kinda liked George Will. He’s gone soft in the head these past few years.

He's right about NCLB though. GWB has created the weapon the left will now use to destroy us. Conservatives never had any prospect of using the educational system to indoctrinate youth into partisan ideologies. The left does though and they are good at it. What GWB has done is to eliminate the last vestige of independence from local school districts. Now any district that does not teach genetic homosexuality, global warming, universal health care, and other left wing agenda items will be denied federal funds. It's coming.

[cinives]

Agreed. Altho I’d argue that curriculum is driven by textbooks, and the textbook is driven by NY, California and Texas.

Therefore, kids across the country are getting the same education as the Kalifornia nutters just because we use the same textbooks.

Look at Chicago math as one example. Kids across the country are failing to larn math because one goofy state University is pushing a crap math curriculum loved by California and NY.

[valkyrieanne]

This article doesn't have much of a "hook," does it?

Basically, what NCLB is doing right now is causing duly elected school boards to be set aside. People are OK with this if it's in urban areas ("inner cities.") I doubt many will be so happy when it comes to their own small town / suburban schools (the ones they paid a premium home price for, so to get into the district.)

But unless NCLB is amended, schools who are labelled "failing" for a certain # of years (think it's three, not sure) will be in line for state takeover. That to me is wrong, to use the power of the federal gov't to set aside a duly-elected board.