Do you support NCLB

[Joseph_Botwinick]

Where do you stand? Vote now.

 

[gekko]

what is that? i've never heard of it...

 

[Joseph_Botwinick]

It is the president's education debacle called No Child Left Behind. Please don't take offense at this, but I would like to limit the voting to Americans only.

Joseph Botwinick

 

[gekko]

oh. ok. no problem here.

 

[rbell]

Furthermore, I don't support No Child's Right Behind.

hmmm...it was funnier before I typed it.

 

[billreber]

No on NCLB

The problem I have seen here is that SOME children (and their parents) do not WANT to get an education. You can't teach someone (to meet the NCLB standards) if they refuse to learn.

The basic idea of providing equal education OPPORTUNITY to all children I totally agree with. Punishing good teachers and schools because of a lack of effort by students I do NOT agree with.

The results of this year's WASL (Washington Assessment of Student Learning) was quite disturbing -- about two thirds of the students failed the math portion! The discussion here has been (for years) about the appropriateness of requiring this test to be passed in order to graduate. I saw an early example of the WASL math problems (about 6 years ago), and was horrified to see that I would probably fail it as well! (BTW, I always got A's in math, even in college).

No Child Left Behind? What about those like Jed Miller (now deceased in his 20s), who could not talk or walk since birth? Confined to a wheel chair, Jed COULD learn, but COULD NOT take a test such as the WASL. Therefore, Jed was "left behind" by the law.

Bill :saint:

 

[Joseph_Botwinick]

1. 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.​
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2. 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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1. 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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Arkansas Lt. Governor candidate on No Child Left Behind​