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| O Wants More Local Control for Schools? |
| 2011-05-23 |
| President Barack Obama is urging Congress to overhaul the No Child Left Behind Law and provide more local control and flexibility to schools. "We need to reward the reforms that are driven not by Washington, but by principals and teachers and parents," Obama said. "That's how we'll make progress in education - not from the top down, but from the bottom up." Somebody got the wrong speech in the teleprompter. Nope, it's the right speech. This translates to: let's find a way to get local schools off the hook for the product they're turning out. The teacher unions and school boards are united in how much they HATE NCLB, because it forces them to account for what they've done, and they can't hide behind statistics and averages. The Obama administration has said No Child Left Behind is inadequately funded and seeks to replace it with a system for reviewing schools that leaves more day-to-day decisions to states and school districts. Oh. more funding! NOW it makes sense! So this is just a red herring to be traded off for ... no, not traded off. Just another good reason to raise Federal taxes to funnel the money thru D.C. for more control over local issues. I get it, now! Many Democrats, and allies in the teachers unions, think schools need more federal money. Local control = local taxes. Federal money = Federal control. |
| Posted by:Bobby |
| #7 My sister was a teacher before retirement. She spend three years teaching in the American school in Abu Daubi(?). She said it was much better because the students came _prepared_ to learn. The idea is that if the parents have to actually pay something for it - they might pay more attention. Might even try to get their kids to study or be prepared for school., |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2011-05-23 21:51 |
| #6 Parents paying for their kids education? There are parents who send their kids to school without a breakfast, lunch, pencil, notebook.... My wife sees it everyday. My favorite story was the kid on free lunch who's mother brought in a happy meal. The student ate the happy meal and the mom at the free lunch. |
| Posted by: Airandee 2011-05-23 21:32 |
| #5 Damn right BP - you get the Parents paying (as in writing a check to the local school district) and you will suddenly see a lot of interest in that the local district is doing and teaching. I don't care if its $10/month for the dirt-poor who have to pay out of their welfare check. Everyone should pay something. Same for taxes (Federal and State) - get rid of 'automatic withholding' and make people write a frigging check and suddenly a lot more people will become concerned with how high their taxes are and what is being done with their (and not the government's) money. As it is - they never see the money so it's viewed as the 'governments money' and pretty much an infinite pile of cash. I know... good luck with that. The politicians want to keep you numb on your taxes and the Unions definitely don't want people to see what they are doing with your school funds. |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2011-05-23 17:51 |
| #4 Getting parents to pay for their own childrens education is even better. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2011-05-23 16:46 |
| #3 Vouchers = ultimate local control |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2011-05-23 15:59 |
| #2 Give them more federal dollars to get them addicted - then attach the UNION supporting strings and red tape after they are hooked. The first hit is free! How is this local control? |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2011-05-23 15:25 |
| #1 I kind of agree that control of school should be at least pushed down to the state level. Eliminate the DOE completely and give half of the savings back to education programs that work. Let the states decide what works and act accordingly. |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge 2011-05-23 14:31 |