Education Law May Hurt Bush

Education Law May Hurt Bush
No Child Left Behind's Funding Problems Could Be '04 Liability

By Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, October 13, 2003; Page A01


FAIRLEA, W.Va. -- President Bush's No Child Left Behind education program -- acclaimed as a policy and political breakthrough by the Republicans in January 2002 -- is threatening to backfire on Bush and his party in the 2004 elections.

The signature education plan is pledged to improve the performance of students, teachers and schools with yearly tests and serious penalties for failure. Although many Republicans and Democrats are confident the system will work in the long run, Bush is being criticized in swing states such as West Virginia for not adequately funding programs to help administrators and teachers meet the new, and critics say unreasonable, standards.

Bush hoped to enhance his image as a compassionate conservative by making this education program one of the first and highest priorities of his administration. But he could find the law complicating his reelection effort, political strategists from both parties say, as some states report that as many as half or more of schools are failing to make the new grade and lack the money to turn things around promptly.

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David Winston, a pollster for congressional Republicans, said Bush and the GOP trail Democrats 50 percent to 36 percent on the education issue, a 14-point drop since the measure was signed in January 2002. The Democratic presidential candidates are criticizing the law on the campaign trail and are getting supportive responses.

On Capitol Hill, the fight over funding for No Child Left Behind is becoming a significant issue of the upcoming congressional elections, as Democrats blame Bush and congressional Republicans for shortchanging the law by billions of dollars.

The issue has particular resonance in such key states in the presidential election as Florida, Tennessee, Missouri and West Virginia, where nearly half or more of schools are not meeting the new benchmarks and where a few thousand votes could decide which presidential candidate wins each state in 2004. Swing voters, particularly married mothers, frequently cite education as among their chief concerns when deciding whom to support in presidential elections.

No Child Left Behind is stupid and ridiculous, because it doesn't address the real problem. No cookie cutter solution, be it tests or a standardized curriculum is going to help improve schools. Teachers must be free to TEACH kids in whatever way it takes for them to learn. When I started teaching in the 70's, I was given a group of third grade boys who couldn't read at a pre-primer level. Most had been retained at least once, and none wanted to go through the usual textbook route again-it didn't work for them. I got hotrod magazines and taught the entire group to read. By the end of the year, they could read at a second grade level-quite an accomplishment, seeing where they'd started. But by NCLB standards, they would still be at a failure level, because they weren't reading on grade level. No matter that the next year they caught up. No matter that they went on to go to college and to start their own businesses. No matter that one of them told me I had changed his life for the better.

Most teachers see the wisdom of accountability, but they also realize that students aren't identical cogs in a machine. My guess is that there are a lot of educators out there (or ex-educators like me) who will vote against Bush just because of his ruinous education plans.

The idea of penalizing failing schools by withdrawing funding is an absolutely negative method. It is also unproven.

I can guarantee you...a large part of the teaching population will not support Bush.

We just need to get past the constant media blitz and let the rest of the country see what NCLB has done to us.

Maybe he will actually do something worthwhile in the few months before the next election - not because he cares about kids, but because he thinks that pretending he does will help him get elected.

What a pathetic person to be in charge of America.

they go together like me and a repugnat-con

We sit in meeting after meeting trying to make sense of the NCLB Act. First, it would seem that we have to lower our standards in order to apply the damn thing; however, with its 37 ways to fail and no way to pass, we are just waiting for them to close our doors. And let there be no mistake, NCLB has only one one goal, to undo the public schools. We can't even figure out what the feds want us to do because they don't know.

My state, which was touted a few years ago by the WSJ for getting the most bang for the education buck, now is considering suing the bastards. Did you know that the Act specifically referrs to "the scientific reading method"? And would it come as a surprize that only ONE TEXAS company sells that method? Better yet, guess what party receives contributions from that company? Ha! I thought you'd figure it out.

When NCLB was being debating (read: shoved down our throats) I wrote to my state's senators, the evil sisters, and expressed my concern that our state currently and consistently ranking among the top six for performance, was about to adopt the Texas plan, a state rated at 49'th. Of course I received the usually spun drivel from the them, which only serves to make me angry all over again. They really don't care since I never vote for them anyway. And they know that all the anti-choice educators have locked in their votes based on a single issue.