No Child Left Behind... and the US Constitution.

You don't need more government you need more parental responsiblity. Many teachers now schedule up to 1/3 rd of the class time for homework. If they don't then the parents complain that students don't have time to do it and be with their friends and jobs. The government will help below average students attend college and then wonder why they can't get a good paying job once out of college and can't pay back the loans.

What needs to be done is education run at the local level, with oversight from the next jurisdiction. The further you centralize anything, the more corruption and failure you build into the system.

Lol, we have been complaining that there is not enough homework to the point that our kids get extra stuff to do at home. Just like my youngest has to get extra reading time from us in order to be where she needs to be. I fully agree that parents need to be more involved and should complain less about homework assignments. However, I don't think we should punish the kids whose parents don't care and simply leave everything up to the schools. Kids should learn how to read and write. In a developed country like this illiteracy should not be an issue. And kids should not be pushed along because it's more convenient rather than have them repeat a year yet again or trying to figure out what the problem is. That was original thought behind this act... it just ballooned into a monster with proportions nobody wanted in the first place.

Then why don't adminstrators refuse to do it? Teachers can't refuse, but administrators are entirely in their right to do so.

The administrators ARE the "powers that be", they have every right to accept or reject NCLB, they just choose to accept if because of the money. They don't buy into it for the good of the kids, they do it to pad their own wallets.

They are being pressured by the "powers that be" to keep those test scores moving upward so they can get more funding.

True, a lot of federal programs are based on local programs that worked well... NCLB isn't one of them. The proplem with some of your suggestions is, it deepens the dependency education has on federal money. The federal government is already trillions in debt so there is no reason for local organizations to expect the cash cow to keep giving milk. I like the idea of a National Registry of educators, as long as it is privately funded and run. When I was a Paramedic, I was a member of the National Registry of EMTs and saw a lot of benefit to it. You are right, parents and students have the first responsibility for education, so any program that takes limits the choices in that responsibility is wrong headed. There are millions of kids who are being robbed of the best alternative for them simply because the teachers' unions are opposed to them.

I am not sure about the dependency issue. I think in my mind I want to cut out the dependency by creating a system that ensures seperation between the "loan" / "grant" system and the execution of the local administration. I truly do believe that this is possible. Clearly I agree with you that today there is a real need to buckle down and deal with our debt as a nation. We can't simply say, "oh here have some money". We need to clean up our mess first. But the other side of this coin is that we should be looking at ways to support our teachers and our students in productive and realistic ways without interfering with the administrative decision making of individual districts. We should also be looking for ways to invest in America first, before investing in the infrastructure of other countries. My thoughts are that by triming the US charity budget we can find millions, possibly billions. By finding these dollars we can start to work toward cleaning up our mess at home. Grants and special loans for innovation in the classroom, for special education, for infrastructure, improved services; these are things that districts need and should be able to look to our federal government for when all else fails. Not handouts but Grants and / or low interest loans where there is need and definition, even competion for the funds. Lets focus on us, America first. Maybe part of the role of the Department of Education should be engaging with corporate America, soliticing funds and resources from corporate America for improvements too our infrastructure. Maybe the Department of Education should really be a cooperative between the federal, state, local and private sectors. My issue is really that whenever I hear Bill Gates or any of the other "Captains" of industry sit before Congress and say they "need" an expansion of the Guest Worker (H1B) program because there aren't enough qualified US workers in the market my blood boils. But there is unfortunately a certain amount of truth in their statements. Our schools are turning out "graduates" incapable of reading, writing, basic math, basic sciences. Most US citizens cannot function beyond basic 10th grade literacy, in some cases despite university diplomas. Most US citizens do not speak a second language. Most US citizens have never been beyond the borders of the USA. Most US universities are still teaching technologies that are 10 to 15 years old, where the market has moved on. Indian, Chinese, Philiphines, Japan, and most of the old Eastern Bloc are all learning new technologies such as client server and ERP which is why they are here in droves. Having worked as a consultant in IT with several school districts across the nation, I am very familar with the issues of the Unions and how they can and do harm innovation and productivity. It is disturbing to watch these dinosaurses in action, believe me. I have seen many good teachers walk away in disgust and many truly dismal teachers sit on their fat proverbials drawing a paycheck and not teach a thing. I have also seen librarians advanced into district CIO's without a lick of experience, that was a joke. There is little accountability and even less responsibility for the outcome of any single action or group of actions. But I remain, like you convinced that the Feds should not be the watchdogs. But who should? Clearly the parents are not standing up today and demanding their children be taught.

All true, but involved parents don't always equal a good student. My parents were very involved and interested in our education. When I had trouble learning multiplication, my mother and I sat down with flash cards. Once she learned which ones I had the most trouble with, she put them on 5x7 cards and hung them on the walls around the house. To this day if I have to multiply 7x6, I laugh to myself because I still see those 5x7s on the walls. :~D

Oh, I'm all for setting standards in schools... the problem with NCLB is that it puts the emphasis on all the wrong standards. Education isn't a "one size fits all" thing.. but NCLB forces it to become such.

NCLB doesn't require all kids to be the same in every grade, it just requires them to be able to pass tests the same in every grade. Passing tests is a piss poor substitute for learning.

I'm for setting standards too. It's just unfair that they expect all kids to be @ the same level in every grade. All kids develop & learn @ different times. Best wishes.

I agree with you, although I would put the student at #1 and parents at #2. Until a kid is interested in learning, the parents and teachers can do little to teach them. Personally, I think that mandatory education is part of the problem... although I don't know if making education totally voluntary is the answer either.

I'm am a supporter of school choice. Homeschooling and other alternatives are much more effective than unconstitutional federal infringements. I commend you for choosing homeschooling, I know it isn't for everyone, but it's awesome for those who benefit from it.

Exactly, your daughter chose an education over learning to pass a test... and now she has to pay for that.

Look into alternative choices then... if they are available in your area.

We can encourage the new administration to dump the unconstitutional white elephant. More importantly, we can encourage our local school boards and adinistrators to free themselves of the money addiction that seems to have replaced education in our schools.