resident Bush promised to make educating every child his top domestic priority and reform a system that has failed the most needy students in our nation’s classroom,” proclaims President Bush’s re-election website, www.georgewbush.com.
“When it comes to education, George W. Bush has been the photo-op President. He stands next to children and teachers for a picture, but he doesn’t stand with them when it comes to improving our public schools,” John Kerry’s election website, www.johnkerry.com, fires back.
From its inception, Bush’s educational plan, “No Child Left Behind” has had its critics and its supporters. With the election trail heating up, Bush has shifted focus in his domestic agenda to this educational policy – from spending just three paragraphs of his 2004 State of the Union address on it to making it a major part of his campaign. In an effort to address some of the concerns people voiced about the law, Bush recently called for some changes to allow more time for teachers to reach the testing qualifications the plan demands.
The provisions of the “No Child Left Behind” plan includes mandatory testing for all children to advance, more detailed report cards to parents, and limited school choice for students in failing schools.
“No Child Left Behind” also demands that by the 2006-2007 school year schools have teachers in all core subjects with a bachelor’s degree, state certification, and passing scores on exams in the subject they teach.
“Keeping teachers up to date in their fields is a valuable thing,” said parent and CCE transfer student Jennifer LaRock. “On the other hand, any time the federal government sticks its fingers into something that’s state run, it’s not necessarily a good thing. In a way it makes us look like we don’t trust our teachers to improve themselves along the way. Teachers are almost always going to school and seminars. It’s not just a nine-month a year job.”
“The states are so overwhelmed trying to make adequate yearly progress (in their schools). … That has become, unfortunately, more of the focus than the part of the law we like: keeping parents informed and involved,” said Melissa Ganley, program manager for the National PTA.
In response, the Bush administration has allowed some changes, primarily for rural teachers. Rural teachers often teach more than one subject, and have had a harder time reaching qualification in all of them. Therefore, teachers in certain schools will have an extra year to reach the requirements.
They also wish to reform what counts as “qualified.” States may deem certain subjects, like those in the social sciences, similar enough that having credentials in one is credentials in all of them. For example, teachers may demonstrate a general knowledge of all sciences, rather than a series of specific sciences like physics or chemistry. Furthermore, teachers may not have to actually take a test, but instead show their qualifications through professional training or getting articles published.
The Feb. 20 modifications to the “No Child Left Behind” plan allows children who are still learning to speak English to have exemption from the reading and writing tests during their first year of schooling.
The changes themselves illuminate issues for some critics of the plan.
“The law itself is built to force school districts around the country into conformity despite any diversity like English as a second language, or handicaps, and without enough additional funding or help,” said first year and chairman of the Young Democrats Society at Guilford, Adam Waxman. “It sets unrealistic standards with no funding to back it up. The states are going to waste time and money trying to find their way around these requirements, and Congress is going to waste even more time and money trying to go back and fix them.”
Currently the plan does not outline specific consequences for not meeting the requirements but withdrawal of national funding is an option.
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A suggestion for Bush’s plan : Leave no teacher behind
Seth Van Horn
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March 26, 2004
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