I believe that education is really important and that if you have a good education that you will do well in life. I would like to know your stance on education and ask you why the no child left behind act is failing. Students are still failing classes and the no child left behind act isn't helping the school systems across the country all that much. What it does do is fire teachers that aren't doing that well which really isn't productive. If a child really wants to become educated they should be given the opportunity. I believe parents should be given the choice of being able to chose the right school for their student. If their child attends a bad school it is more than likely that their child will not succeed. What do you think should be done about education?

NCLB is the "Blue Skies Initiative" of polluting our Founding Father's intent of a public education system. Great name for a piece of djoy.

Thanks for all your public service Frank Lundtz and Karl tpbr.

It is true that the NLCB isn't all that it's cut out to be. Why not actually try to get more qualified teachers in school so that students have a better chance of learning?

Getting rid of rap music in school would be a good start.
It's nothing but a distraction anyway and only enforces negative peer pressure.

www.abovepolitics.com...

i have two posts there that deal with this subject

Alexandro, Rap music is a distraction. But couldn't the same be said for any other kind of music?


Bodrul- you bleieve the issue lies with what they are learning. Have you considered that some people don't care about their education? What about them?

Sigh...joints creak...ok, hear it from an elder...ahem....
NCLB doesn't work, because it's a dream from both side of the issue.

Democrats would have you believe that everyone is born with the same academic capabilities and that by 2014 every student will be at grade level, if only we had higher standards. Sigh...I wrote to Senator Kennedy, saying that that is as if his family did away with Special Olympics and told all their athletes that, with better coaching, higher standards, and more practice, all their athletes could compete in the regular Olympics.
I say that you cannot take someone with a 65 IQ and make him college bound. Someone with an 80 IQ might master very many things in Life, but a 4 year college ain't gonna be one of them!

Republicans use NCLB for their dream of getting rid of teachers' unions and privatizing education. Have there been lousy teachers? Sure. I had a friend decades ago who said that one of her Alabama high school teachers was just out of high school herself! Could there be a difference between a teacher in the state of Washington who must earn a Masters Degree and one from a state with minimal qualifications? Sure. Can principals, as any employer, hire poor teachers? Sure. Can they let them go? Sure.

Just as companies like Blackwater salivate over getting government contracts, privateers want to open up schools to shake out taxpayer dollars.

When I was in high school...bones creak...the drop out age was 16, and many students dropped after 8th or 9th gr. Now students are forced to be in school till 18. With NCLB's emphasis on basics, many students with below average academic ability are leaving school with no skills, because they have put their time into basic academic classes.
NCLB makes every student jump through the same hoop, regardless of ability or desire.

Some schools labeled "bad" or "failing" actually do graduate students who do well and further their education.

NCLB should not be the same for everyone. It should not be the equivalent of Take No Prisoners.

NCLB has been positive in some respects, focusing on teacher qualification (remember that Alabama teacher) and perhaps giving a kick in the seat of the pants to those students who would otherwise lower themselves academically into lower level classes, because they're easier.

Interesting, while forcing students to advance academically, for the ones that want to have higher education, the buck stops there. Go to college/tech school? Sure, take out a student loan. Again, privatization.

You know, the goal of busing was not to force integration, but to allow students in poorly maintained schools to have the same quality of schools as students in more affluent neighborhoods.

The goal of NCLB seems to be having the same problems. Not all students need or want an academic degree.

Besides, what do graduating high school students or college students have for jobs nowadays? Load a truck for WalMart? Open up a Starbucks? How many people want to be a nurse?

Those conservative advocates of NCLB who claim we need more scientists, forget that education has been a free market place. College graduates went to where the money was, such as law, economics, business, and not science. Also, after a Rhodes Scholar president, we've had two terms of a president whose base included persons not inclined to think scientifically.

Lastly, friends who have high school age children often complain that they wish they had gone to college. What stopped them?--as it turns out too much partying with alcohol/drugs and having a child right out of high school.

I have a California teaching credential and at one time thought that being an educator would be a valued and noble profession. But after two semesters of constant BS from the parents, the administration, and the kids themselves; I joined the AFofL-CIO and worked in a factory, made almost twice as much as my teaching salary, no stress, easy work driving a fork lift 3hrs a day, great benifits, 2hr lunches at Spanglers in Berkeley.

I have to admit that I really admire teachers that can tolerate the school system anywhere in this country because teachers aren't paid near enough, and get precious little of the respect they deserve and it's a damn shame.