Not surprisingly, I found the 2008 State of the Union to be an overall disappointment. The President met the bar, but since this was his last State of the Union and his approval ratings are so low, the bar wasn't set very high. There are many statements made last night that I could take exception to, however in the interest of time, I would like to highlight just these two:"Members of Congress, the No Child Left Behind Act is a bipartisan achievement. It is succeeding. And we owe it to America's children, their parents and their teachers to strengthen this good law."
I would argue that anyone who thinks the No Child Left Behind Act is truly succeeding has not spent any meaningful amount of time working in a public school since they graduated.
"We must also do more to help children when their schools do not measure up. Thanks to the D.C. Opportunity Scholarships you approved, more than 2,600 of the poorest children in our nation's capital have found new hope at a faith-based or other nonpublic schools.
Sadly, these schools are disappearing at an alarming rate in many of America's inner cities. So I will convene a White House summit aimed at strengthening these lifelines of learning.
And to open the doors of these schools to more children, I ask you to support a new $300 million program called Pell Grants for Kids. We have seen how Pell Grants help low-income college students realize their full potential.
Together, we've expanded the size and reach of these grants. Now let us apply the same spirit to help liberate poor children trapped in failing public schools."
Teachers in this country are working much harder than most all politicians understand, and turning around and sending students to other schools is a slap in their face. I find it incredibly disheartening that the President of the United States feels that his country's public education system -- the great equalizer -- is a lost cause. But if anyone thinks that private schools are so much better, I would simply argue that the current President of the United States is a product of private schools.
2 comments:
You are absolutely correct in your points about NCLB. It's a dismal law, and needs to be rescinded.
Your blog's great! Keep up the good work.
Private preparatory schools are excellent if your parents don't just pay them off to pass you. The other schools that get lumped in erroneously as "private" schools are parochial and have absolutely no business educating children in the medieval superstitions that enslave them for life. This whole approach by NCLB to divert taxpayer money to parochial schools is just sick. There's no way a voucher can fund a real private education that's worth as much or more than the public system. Let's not forget that public schools are required to provide services to special needs students while parochial schools just dump them instead.
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