Supplementary > October 24, 2004

Education

By Barbara Miner

1. Leaving all children behind. The shamelessly misnamed No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation, a cornerstone of Bush’s domestic agenda, uses the rhetoric of “accountability” to undermine public education via a monomaniacal obsession with standardized tests and a trigger-happy willingness to label schools a failure.
2. Vouching for vouchers. When schools “fail,” as NCLB ensures they will, vouchers and privatization will be presented as the necessary alternatives. Bush already has signed legislation for the first federal voucher program for private schools—a $50 million “experiment” in Washington, D.C. that is a stalking horse for a national program.
3. Crusading for Christ. The Education Department is stocked with anti-union privatizers and religious zealots. Most notable is Secretary of Education Secretary Rod Paige, who has branded the National Education Association a “terrorist organization” and has said he prefers having children in Christian schools than in public schools “where there are so many kids with different values and different faiths.”
4. Promoting privatization plans. From 2001 to 2003, the Department of Education gave almost $78 million in grants to conservative groups promoting privatization. Further, almost two-thirds of NCLB dollars for ”supplemental” tutoring are being given to private companies. Overall, some 1,000 private companies are vying for the $2 billion-plus tutoring market.
5. Failing to adequately fund. The Bush 2005 budget underfunds NCLB by billions of dollars—and that’s just to fund the law’s testing. It would take about a 30 percent annual increase in school spending for states to actually meet the testing goals. In addition, Bush’s 2005 budget eliminates monies for 38 education programs such as dropout prevention.

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• Reader Comments

  I hate to say that I am aphauled over all the things I read about here. I had no idea that is was really this bad. I knew there were lies and deceit but not to this extent.

  How can we as people who know this allow it to happen.
  How can we sit idle when these people we elect into positions of power degrate the very fabric of our nation?
  The people in power continue to segregate and separate us all so we do not trust one another. They insist that poverty is due to a lack of quality education. I say BUll SH*T! I have a ninth-grade education and am living alright.(I said ALRIGHT) Lack of education is only a small factor. When you grow up knowing that you have no chance in making a niche for yourself or family, and every attempt you make is stone-walled by more powerful people for their own interests you choose mostly to make your own rules and try to get away with it. What chance do these folks really have?

  We have become a race of people who think selfishly, act for ourselves, alone and care about money and power. If that is what being an American is all about under Presidents Bush’s “RULE” I can say I am ashamed of being an American!

  Our children must be locked away for safe keeping, instead of being able to play as I did as a child. Our jobs pay more but our goods are three times as expensive. Our homes are built with less quality and yet they cost 1.5 times as much as when I was a child. WHY? Because the people we choose to elect go unchecked and are allowed to mis-use the powerful positions we elected them into.

  I have said more than I intended to and have not done anything but empty this over-filled burdened soul by pointing blame and spreading my opinions.
  Next time I post I’ll write about what we as a people can do about it instead of just crying about it.
  Hopefully one day we as an American people shall learn to live along side our neighboring countries and ourselves, so that we truly can be called the greatest nation in the world.

  Posted by Eric Levay on Oct 25, 2004 at 1:14 PM

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