The No Child Left Behind legislation has vastly increased standardized tests and created a muddle of federal regulations with results opposite from their intentions. FULL ARTICLE by Anton Batey
Source link: http://archive.mises.org/12283/the-trouble-with-no-child-left-behind/
The Trouble with No Child Left Behind
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This is a great article and you do a good job of pointing out the flaws of government intervention into the educatoion system.
However, when you make reference to an alledged comment that is sourced from someone of less than reliable credibility like Doug Thompson, it places an aire of doubt on your entire thesis. When I read the quote, it was the first I had heard of it and although I did not agree with Bush’s big govermnet programs, I know that in his heart, he is a good man and Christian. After about 5 minutes of research found that the only original source was CapitalHillBlue.com – who has since removed it becuase they could not confirm it. http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_7779.shtml
People generally seriously misunderstand the moral meaning of hypocrisy. The hypocrite is not, (as is commonly believed) someone who is pretending to be something he is not. The hypocrite is someone who actually believes he is something that he is not – he has created an artificial self. That is what makes him so dangerous. Not only does he believe in his own goodness, but it is easy for others to believe it too because he is not obviously faking. The hypocrite naturally gravitates toward positions of power and part of the effect of powers is to bring honor to the hypocrite.
I appreciate that you are trying to be gracious in your assessment of Mr. Bush but there is a common deception involved here: “Let no one deceive you…the one who practices righteousness is righteous…the one who practices sin is of the devil.” (I Jn 3:7-8) It is a delusion to believe that persons can do evil with good intentions. No such dichotomy is possible.
I was a teacher at three public high schools in New York City. Students got an excellent education at two (Edward R. Murrow and Midwood) and a poor education at one (Erasmus). The reason was that there is in NYC a two-tier system. At good schools high demands are made on teachers and students. At poor schools low demands are made on teachers and students. The following is testimony I gave about discipline in NYC public schools to the New York State agency governing public schools:
http://www.dkroemer.com/page68/page68.html
Excellent points. However, the problem is not unique just to New York City as other major metropolitan school systems are rapidly failing. The problem again lies in the enforcement of draconian social engineering policies without any reference to either the unintended consequences or intial accountabilty. Take for instance the Kansas City school system in its present failure (article news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100311/ap_on_re_us/us_closing_schools), yet the Cato Institute has an excellent analysis of the writing the wall years before the current decision to close these schools (article http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-298.html). Yes, the planners will plan and the plans will be enforced, but in the end there is no accountability when it comes to the confiscation of others property/money. I wonder how “Jefferson” High is doing in LA (www.cnn.com/2008/US/09/15/btsc.lawrence.dropouts/index.html). Oh well, “plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose.”
Thanks for posting this: I found your testimony thorough and interesting.
The author dramatically understates the true cost of government schools.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzvKyfV3JtE
For example, government schools in DC cost over $28k per kid per year, instead of the $15k quoted in the article. Governments often lie about these numbers to pretend they are doing better than they are.
There’s no confirmation that Bush referred to the constitution as a “goddamned piece of paper.” Your footnoted source is very unreliable.
http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/did_president_bush_call_the_constitution_a.html
This is not so much a comment as a question. I read a book, “The Book of the Founding Fathers”, and found that students in the late eighteenth century routinely graduated from college at seventeen or eighteen years of age. Kids didn’t just graduate college, but passed the bar exam’ and went right into practicing law with no further schooling. Can you imagine a student today being well enough educated to practice law at that age, with “only” a high school diploma? Kids back then were not going through high school, but from elementary school right into the equivalent of law, or medical school. Were kids back then genetically mentally superior to kids today? Which brings me to my question; Were present day high schools founded as a way for “all” children to have access to higher education? If so, might I say that it failed miserably. If college is now made a “human right”, i.e. free to all children, then present day college will become the same atrocity that high school is today. I have tried to research this but it seems this information is a well kept secret. If anyone has any information on this please share it.
Hmmmm, a 17th century medicine degree? A degree to tell you how to chop off limbs, apply leeches, administer enemas and bleed patients? I’m sure George Washington was glad for all the first-class medical treatment he got near the end of his life over what he would get today.
Gil, My comment was about the tragic state of education not about medicine, but on that subject if the world goes to total socialized medicine, the next two hundred years will in no way resemble the last when it comes to the advancements weve seen in medicine. Advancements not possible in a controlled market. It was because of what George Washington and his contemporaries did that the state of medicine is so far superior today than it was back then. We have seen, however, the socialization of education starting in the early nineteenth century. Would you say “our children” are better educated today than in previous times, say before “free education for all children”?
Two reasons why someone will always be left behind. First, there is always a bottom 20 percent. Second, someone will always have to pick apples and drive garbage trucks – or some other low class job. there always will be social classes.
The non-economic factor IS class. The US has a trash class population to whom education is less important than professional sports.
“The US has a trash class population to whom education is less important than professional sports.”
Crass and rudely put, but true. I would guess the utopian idea is to social engineer the kids out of that vicious cycle. Of course, we all know social engineering never works. And in reality, the powers that be prefer that we ALL are more interested in the local football teams chances this year, or who will be the next American Idol, rather than whats going on in the real world .
The best solution, as always, is a free market in education.
Dysgenism does not work. All political correctness aside, the US is a VERY dysgenic society. The US bends over backwards to cater for the lazy, careless, slackard, selfish, self-centered, take-and-take and never-give members of society. If you are such an individual, America is a great place for you. It will spend billions of other people’s money to make your life wonderful and give you the best of everything, not that it matters ultimately as you will squander it all and it won’t change you. In fact if anything such treatment ENCOURAGES you to remain as you are or even become worse; it rewards you for such behavior. The US gets more of what it pays for. It pays for laziness and selfishness and gluttony and it gets more of those things and more of those people who display those traits. (I’m not talking only about the educational underachievers but also the obese careless gluttonous eaters, smokers and drinkers who get diabetes and other illnesses and then demand other people pay their astronomical health care costs – because these people always deserve the best don’t they.) And these people produce offspring that follow the same pattern of lifestyle. Well, why shouldn’t they? They get paid for it. So the US is a very dysfunctional society. It becomes top-heavy with these people until this strata becomes unsupportable and then society collapses under the weight of it all.
Donald,
Great points! In an interview about his book John Adams David McCullough made the observation that Massschusetts had a higher literacy rate in Adams’ time than it does today.
Batey’s problem is not with No Child Left Behind. All of his arguments are against state education. His focus totally diverts the debate away from the real issue.
This is a great article that points to empirical evidence to show why this legislation is ineffective. I think that the reference to the Kansas City School system was terrific foresight considering the recent collapse that has taken place there. One thing that I think could be added is the new no zero grade policies being instituted by school districts. I live in Omaha Nebraska and the OPS district is implementing a new policy where students can not get below a 50% on any assignment even if they do not hand it in. I know that this policy is in part due to NCLB. Districts are trying to find ways to improve graduation rates and this is a easy shortcut to get there. These policies only further the already great sense of entitlement that many students have. Again, great article.
I graduated from high school in Alberta Canada where they had standardized testing.
Some teachers spend the year teaching you how to get a good grade on the test. While, others ignored the test and taught you what you needed to learn on the subject. I have long forgotten what was on the test but I do remember many lessons taught by the teachers who were there teaching us what they knew we would need in life.
If we had a way of weeding out poor teachers, empowering the rest to teach what students need to know for life, our education system would be much better off.
Thanks
Larry
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