Friday, June 16, 2006

Inane antics

The No Child Left Behind act was signed into law in 2002. Yet only now, 4 years later, has the government admitted that something is wrong. Yet the writing has been on the wall for a very long time it seems.

Long before Bush ever made NCLB a national campaign, it was enacted in Texas and hailed as an educational miracle. Yet the truth is very different. Schools began hiding failing students to keep from loosing funding.

Since it's inception, it has been vigorously opposed by bother the National Education Assosciation and the American Federation of Teachers.

In 2004, NCLB was failing so badly that the department of education contracted with Ketchum Inc. to promote the law. However, the advertisments were designed to come across as news stories, which drew the attention of many given that this action qualified it as propaganda, which is outlawed.

In 2005, Utah became so frustrated that governor John Huntsman signed a bill allowing schools to effectively ignore parts of the NCLB act that conflicted with the school's programs.

Additionally, hidden amongst the other mess is a section forcing schools to surrender students information to military recruiters.

The writing has been on the wall for a long time that NCLB is a failing act. Yet it seems the rule for this administration to take forever to see what many people could have pointed out long before the act was ever instituted.

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