No Child Left Behind - Unless you suck, then we'll shut ya down.

Possibly some of the worst education legislation to have ever been created is coming up for debate in Washington, D.C. The No Child Left Behind Act, which, despite its name, cares little about children and completely about numbers, needs to be reauthorized by Congress. Why is this bad? Because NCLBA demands students perform to a specific degree on national standardized testing, and if they do not their school is disciplined. Penalties can range from reduced federal aid to federally focred closure. On its face, and certainly within its title, this legislation may sound responsible, but since its establishment four year ago scores have not imporoved.

More importantly local school districts must prove to the federal government that its students are leanring at an appropriate pace;

"Federally funded schools that fail to bring their students up to par quickly enough face sanctions, from having to pay for after-school tutors to possible closure."
-StatesmanJournal

This type of legislation seems odd coming from a party that has triumphed state's rights and fisical conservatism. On the other hand, when you learn the NCLBA is a federally unfunded mandate, the math becomes a little less fuzzy.

The worst components of the legislation is not simply that it places federally stipulated targets or that it uses coercion in its demands, the truely reprehensible part is that students are made into pawns during this game of statistics. No longer does Mr. Johnson care about learning as an individual nor can he take into account Joey's progress or background, no, now he simply must ensure Joey reaches that magic number so that his district doesn't lose even more funding. And this is admist many school districts budgets already shrinking, requiring cuts from programs such as music and art.

We need new legislation, a bill that will promise to fund education and work to improve our schools. Continuing NCLB is a mistake, this legislation should be overhauled. Tell your Senator and Congressman to put children first and to give districts the money they desperately need to improve, not take it away. OR sign the petition to end NCLBA.