Thursday, September 01, 2005

NCLB denies tutors to troubled students

Just a reminder to those who forget how stupid President GWBush's No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is...

Chicago to get relaxed tutoring rule -- and others will be watching
Under federal rules, school districts that fail to show enough yearly progress in reading and math for two straight years cannot provide tutoring. That restriction is designed to protect poor students from having to rely on the same schools that may not be serving them well when tapping into the law's promise of free tutoring.

But urban districts such as Chicago say the rule is unfair because their test scores in two subjects may have little to do with their ability to provide extra help. What's more, the large districts argue, the rule could keep children from getting help if other tutors aren't available.

So this makes sense -- take tutors away from good students who are improving just because on average the school district as a whole hasn't improved the way NCLB would like them to improve (in some fantasy NCLB world where that improvement is possible). Taking the tutors away is supposed to (I guess?) free up money to concentrate on other programs... because TUTORING is clearly superfluous.

My nephew had an interesting brush with NCLB. Increased testing requirements forced the school to find that he's a gifted art student, something that surprised his parents. However, decreased funding meant that the school had to close its arts program completely, so the only place where my nephew can nurture his talent is at a special program for youngsters at CCAD, which is more than 45 minutes away from him by car. (my nephew also plays sports and does homework; his sister has a similar schedule, and his parents are pretty busy working and taking care of the two of them to drive him to CCAD for an arts program that his school won't even give him credit for taking)

George W. Bush used to be governor of Texas, a state that is 50th in education. How can this man possibly pretend to be an expert on education? He brought the same half-brained idiots from Texas with him. He's surrounded by the same stagnant bad ideas that have been around for years.

Personally, I think he thinks that he can dumb down the entire nation to the point wherhe Texas won't look so bad. This is all an attempt to make Texas look better.

No comments: