Laws Left Behind--Maybe For Good Reason
I wanted to post this comment in response to Congress Hasn't Reauthorized Education Law: Many Others Left Behind Too. Author David Baumann, About.com Guide, Baumann wrote,
"Sometimes Congress has a hard time doing its job and it can have serious ramifications. Take the requirement that Congress is supposed to reauthorize programs periodically, once the programs are created.
"Congress can't seem to do it; programs remain un-reauthorized for years," and said they had not reauthorized the "No Child Left Behind" act. The site wasn't taking comments, so here is mine below.
While I appreciate your perspective, I do see another side to this issue. If they are in agreement, it is easy for members of Congress to reauthorize programs.
But they aren't likely to reauthorize something with which they disagree.
The "No Child Left Behind" act was extremely controversial when it passed. At the time, however, one political party had control of congress and the executive branch, and it was approved.
The recent scandal in Chicago schools has been linked to administrators and teachers allowing and even encouraging their students to cheat on tests to keep their jobs. Some teachers were apparently threatened if they did not participate. Many feared they would lose their jobs because of a law many have called unrealistic, unfair, and counterproductive. It put many educators in the position where if they honestly did their job they could lose it.
While the problem was discovered there, how many educators across America faced the dilemma that if they taught students to their best ability they could be fired? What do they do when the law encourages them to pass students who aren't ready?
Several states plan to act in defiance of the law that many educators say punishes poor school districts. Poorer students tend to score lower on standardized tests meaning employees of those schools are in danger of losing their jobs. Idaho, Montana and South Dakota and possibly other states plan to ignore the law even if it means loss of federal funding.
Some state representatives said they only accepted the law because they needed the funding and believed the law would be thrown out before the 2014 proficiency deadline.
There's also a large question of whether test scores are a true indicator of future success. How many jobs and career regularly require their employees to take tests? Test scores do not necessarily translate into real world success or indicate a good education. I remember one teacher telling me, "It's time to stop teaching and start preparing them for the tests."
The fact legislators do not reauthorize programs does not necessarily mean they're falling down on their job. It could mean they're doing it.
Photo of a urinating boy with a book is under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic licenseby (Juhan Sonin). We added the red circle-and-slash "no" symbol. See the original at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Urinating_boy_with_a_story.jpg
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