Candidates avoiding No Child Left Behind

An article in today's Washington Post notes Barack Obama and John McCain have generally been ignoring No Child Left Behind during their campaigns:

But in their race for the White House, Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) are distancing themselves from what has become a tainted brand.

Education experts say the candidates have offered, at best, a fuzzy vision for the future of the No Child Left Behind law. Obama pledges to "fix the failures" of the law, while McCain seeks to avoid mention of it.

"This is the 10,000-pound gorilla, and yet nobody wants to talk about it. At both conventions, you hardly heard anyone say the words 'No Child Left Behind,' " said Michael J. Petrilli, vice president for national programs and policy at the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, a nonprofit organization that seeks to raise education standards. "I think that says a lot about how unpopular the law is, or at least the brand. Politicians, not wanting to take unnecessary risks, are keeping quiet."

A national poll released last month by Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup found that 67 percent of Americans think the law should be significantly changed or scrapped. A quarter of those polled said it's helping schools; 22 percent said it's hurting.

No Child Left Behind has been used as a weapon by those who are seeking to put public money into private schools and by those who are seeking to make a quick buck off education- the virtual school companies, the testing companies, and companies like Edison Schools, that offer to take over the operation of public schools.

When the issue has been discussed, we have wrongly accepted some things as truths which never should have been accepted. For instance:

-We keep hearing about all of these tests which show the U. S. lagging in comparison to other countries. Why doesn't anyone ever mention that we are talking about a country that guarantees everyone access to public schools, including those who would not ever receive the opportunity in these other countries. We are also being compared to countries which choose which students should receive further educational training and guide other students out of the system and into the workplace.

-For the most part, people have not been noting what the definition of proficiency is. If we are talking about students making a B grade, which is the case in Missouri, how realistic is that? To expect every student to have at least a B average is something out of science fiction and is totally unrealistic. That is not going to happen by 2014 or by 2100.

-Assuming that the problems in education can be handled by the education community alone is also unrealistic. Many of the problems facing students have nothing whatsoever to do with school. Students have to deal with poverty, all kinds of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, parents with drug and alcohol problems, in other words, all kinds of baggage from their home lives that make it difficult, if not impossible to concentrate on schoolwork.

In addition to those problems, it is time to take a close look at the shell game that has been going on with our economy for the past few decades that has brought about this so-called crisis in public education. We have been watching as laws have been written that make it easier and more profitable for companies to send well-paying job overseas to save a few dollars. In many cases, these companies are even given tax breaks to eliminate jobs. Each time this happens, we are given the fiction that everything will be all right if we train the workforce to be able to adapt to these changes and move on to other high-paying jobs.

And yet, this is not what happens. People get their education, move on to these jobs, then the minute the million-dollar CEOs find a way to outsource those jobs, the cycle starts all over again. This is a major difference from a few decades ago where automation eliminated some jobs, but other opportunities opened at the same time. In this case, the jobs leave forever, and are replaced by lower-paying jobs, and even those will be replaced if someone can make a buck. This is not the fault of a public education system that has allegedly failed to prepare the workforce, this is a system designed to make a few people wealthy at the expense of the rest of us.

The goal of No Child Left Behind is a lofty one, and as anyone who has received an education, whether it be from a public school, a private school, or from the school of hard knocks knows, it is an impossible one to achieve. It is time for this law to vanish forever.