| What was new at Tocqueville: September 23, 2004 |
School reform: left behindSome schools in House Majority Leader Tom Delay's home town appear to have been "left behind" in efforts to meet the goals of the 2002 education reform bill, our sister site, Educationnews.org, reports. (To view it, click here.) Of course, the same observation applies to a large number of schools all across Texas, not to mention Massachusetts, home state of Senators Edward Kennedy and John Kerry. The more serious problems are: 1. tooth-and-nail resistance to education standards by the NEA, AFT, and the rest of the education blob, and 2. the weakness in the original Bush design, spending money now hoping educrats would implement standards later. The overstated rhetoric of many Republicans about "the most important education reform in history" -- a claim made by numerous past presidents -- hasn't helped. For Tocqueville's analysis of the problems with this approach in 2000, 2001, and 2002, click here. And for a solution? Like the Kerry health plan the GOP attacks, No Child Left Behind puts bureacurats in charge of deciding when a school isn't performing, or which school is best. School choice, empowering parents, is the only education reform that works -- and a good theme for Mr. Bush to strum as he outlines plans for a second term. |
