Education News Beat

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Leave No Child Behind

Austin Chronicle (TX)

by Lou DuBose and Molly Ivins

October 3, 2003

Education policy in George Bush's America

Where did this idea come from -- that everybody deserves free education- ... It's like free groceries. It comes from Moscow. From Russia. Straight out of the pit of hell.<br>-- Representative Debbie Riddle, Austin, March 5, 2003

Instant penalty for truancy

BBC News (UK)

October 3, 2003

Parents caught with a child out of school could face an on-the-spot fine of up to 100 pounds.

The fines could be imposed by head teachers, police or council officers in England.

No Child Left Behind Act demands the impossible

The Capital Times (WI)

by Nancy A. Allen

October 2, 2003

Suppose we had laws that required that every automobile sold be defect-free;

...that every person who entered a hospital be cured; or that every individual be thin, healthy and cavity-free. Furthermore, suppose we attached sanctions to these laws, perhaps in the form of fines for individuals or threats of government takeover or the replacement of all employees for businesses. No one would seriously consider such foolish laws.

Public Schools Harm Parents

LewRockwell.com

by R. Cort Kirkwood

October 2, 2003

"Schools," a friend recently observed during a chat about home-schooling, "have a tendency to infantilize parents."

Rational 40-year-old adults, he observed, are more worried about science projects and grades than the kids. Through schedules and activities, parents are slaves to the school.<br><br>This is true for all schools, public or private, but the public schools have taken things a step farther. In Philadelphia and elsewhere, the schools are "grading" parents and how they raise their children.

He needed an A; she needed to be fair

The Christian Science Monitor

by Debra Bruno

October 2, 2003

An A, I told them, was achieved by hard work, not a checkmark to acknowledge work completed.

At first, he thanked me for my comments. How could he do better- We talked for a few minutes. Then he dropped his bombshell: "I'm taking a really heavy load this semester." Science, math, economics, a language. In short, he needed an A in English or he'd lose his scholarship and be forced to drop out. He figured English was his best bet for a not-too-difficult A. He paused, smiling.

Pawlenty wants 'super teachers' at worst schools

Saint Paul Pioneer Press

by John Welsh

October 2, 2003

Gov. Tim Pawlenty proposed Wednesday staffing the state's most difficult schools with "super teachers'' who could earn up to $100,000 through bonuses.

The teachers would have to give up such union protections as tenure, allowing them to be fired at will. The teachers also would have to be willing to let student test scores be a key factor in how much they're paid. In return, the teachers could reap some of the largest nonadministrative salaries in public K-12 education today.

Shrinking From Choice

The New York Sun

October 1, 2003

The Department of Education, it seems, doesn't know quite what to do with all of the children who have a right to transfer out of failing schools under the federal No Child Left Behind law.

The city's dilemma is not difficult to understand.The federal law has established a right to transfer into a non-failing school, but it's beyond the Congress to will into existence more successful schools or more seats therein. The city has managed to slide by so far only by dint of the low rate at which parents are asking for transfers. Ahead of this school year, the parents of only about 8,000 out of 300,000 children in low-performing schools asked for and received transfers - that's fewer than 3% of those eligible and only about 0.6% of the 1.2 million children in New York City's public school system. Some have claimed that the Department of Education did not do enough to inform parents of their choices the last time around; one group even filed a class action lawsuit against the city.

How Federal Law Dooms a School In the Bronx

The New York Sun

by KATHLEEN LUCADAMO

October 1, 2003

Seven years ago, parents in the Riverdale-Kingsbridge section of the Bronx rallied to improve a local middle school and add a neighboring high school.

The goal was clear: create a high-performing community school so parents wouldn't need to send their children to private or specialized public ones.<br><br>No Child Left Behind, threatens to reverse the community's progress, parents say. This month, the school was labeled in need of improvement by the state and under federal guidelines because a small group of youngsters failed eighth-grade exams.

Families Pay Price for Government Spending

i Feminist.com

by Wendy McElroy

September 30, 2003

The modern two-income family is no better off than the one-income family from decades ago.

Social engineering includes the child abuse industry and the sexual harassment industry. Critics refer to them as "industries" because their enforcement policies have established bloated and expensive bureaucracies that slurp at the public trough. The cost to taxpaying families is immense.

Concise, Cogent, Contentious

Washington Post

by Jay Mathews

September 30, 2003

Short Essays, Selected for Some State Exams and Soon the SAT and ACT, Get Mixed Reviews

Sara Stevens is a very bright high school senior who wants to be creative in her writing. Like most American teenagers, though, she knows what will get her the best grade. "The essays have to be made-to-order, with topic sentences and a thesis and a conclusion," she said. "That's what the teacher wants to see, so that is what I write."

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