A Republican's view of NCLB

Joseph_Botwinick · Dec 26, 2005

Is the No Child Left Behind Act good or bad for schools? Why?

It’s terrible. The provisions of the act cannot be met. You cannot guarantee that no child will be left behind, because children are human beings. Human beings are not machines where if you hit the right button you are guaranteed a certain outcome. We have free will. Some children will choose, on their own, to not push themselves to the standards of excellence that their government says they should attain. In many cases, their parents will agree with them. And you know what that is called? It’s freedom. I value education, and I am sorry that not everyone values it as much as I do, but it’s their choice, not the Federal government’s.

Would you do anything to change the NCLB Law? If so, what?

I’d repeal it. I don’t know how many teachers I talk with and they all say the same thing. They aren’t allowed to teach. They know that there are no cookie-cutter children. They know that they can’t effectively do their job when the government is requiring them to spend 40 to 60 percent of their time doing paper work. President Reagan knew local control works, and I know it does as well.

We as a nation had one of the best educational systems in the world - a system of local control that gave us some of the greatest minds and inventions the world has ever known. They gave the world the internal combustion engine, the mass production assembly line, the airplane, nuclear technology, the computer, the Space Program, the microchip. All from a country that did not even have a Federal Department of Education. It was not established until 1979 under President Carter. Most people don’t even know this.

There is no Constitutional Authority to spend federal monies on education. It is wholly the responsibility of the several states. The money saved would go a long way towards ending the federal deficit, and/or paying for other essential government programs. The main effect it would have on Arkansas schools is to reduce the paperwork of the teachers, and allow for a reduction in the number of administrators.
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What is your position on the NCLB law, which passed Congress with bipartisan support but has since been criticized for inflexibility and not providing states enough federal funding to implement the law’s requirements?

It is based on the idea that a government program can guarantee something that only families can accomplish. We can waste a lot of time, energy, and taxpayer dollars trying to pull this off and we will still fail.
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Jim Holt on Education

Joseph Botwinick

The Galatian · Dec 26, 2005

Bush, when governor of Texas, threw his support behind educational reform initiatives that greatly improved the performance of Texas students, including minorities, who were able to reduce the gap between them and the children of affluent Anglos.

Ironically, many of the NCLB provisions have outlawed some of the most effective of these reforms.

OldRegular · Dec 26, 2005

As far as I am concerned the Federal Government has no business in education. They provide 5% of the funding and 95% of the control.

JGrubbs · Dec 26, 2005

I agree! Education should be free from all federal government subsidies, including vouchers, tax incentives, and loans, except with respect to veterans. The Department of Education should be abolished; all federal legislation related to education should be repealed.

SeekingTruth · Dec 26, 2005

JGrubbs and OldRegular

fromtheright · Dec 26, 2005

JG,

I agree! Education should be free from all federal government subsidies, including vouchers, tax incentives, and loans, except with respect to veterans. The Department of Education should be abolished; all federal legislation related to education should be repealed.

Not much surprise, but something else we actually agree on! One doesn't find education among the enumerated powers in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution.

A Republican's view of NCLB

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A Republican's view of NCLB

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