Leave Behind No Child Left Behind?

This is actually a transcript of a speech that the President made while visiting a Chicago School in January. I was both amused and appalled upon reading this article. There was the traditional political round-about talk that is always in a politician’s speaking style but there was also some slightly shocking and upsetting things that really get me worried up people that simply take these speeches at face value. Now because this is also a very politically charged topic there will naturally be parts upon which people disagree on the topic. I simply want to point out some very misguiding statements and do my best to describe their inaccuracies.

President Bush–”I think it’s — I know No Child Left Behind has worked. And I believe this country needs to build upon the successes. The philosophy behind No Child Left Behind was in return for money there ought to be results. It’s pretty commonsensical it seems like to me. That’s what the Mayor asks when he is running his city. That’s what corporations ask — if we’re going to spend money, are we going to get a return on the money? That’s what our schools ought to be asking, too.” Well to start with this is a very inaccurate statement because an overwhelming majority of the American public and qualified educators would disagree with the President over the fact that NCLB has been a success. Most believe it has been an outright failure. Not only is the President supporting the NCLB act as it crumbles around him he is actually suggesting that we build off of it to reach even greater “success.” I do agree with the President in the idea that we should learn from NCLB and work from what we have found out through the consequences of the act. However, that is where the agreement ends. I do not believe that the NCLB act should be reinstated upon its expiration.

This was not the only concerning statement that the President made during his speech. He mentioned that it had been 6 years since the act was signed and he spoke of the success that it has created. It is already apparent that I do not agree with the President on the matter of the act’s success, however, when he clarified his idea of success I became more upset.

President Bush– “Every good school– every school that succeeds — by the way, it’s a Blue Ribbon School. So I asked Margaret — like, I remember coming up, everybody was a blue ribbon school. I don’t know if you remember those days. It was kind of a feel-good era. Just say, okay, you’re a blue ribbon school, and everybody feels better about education.

There’s less than 300 Blue Ribbon schools across America this year. I think — what did you say, thirteen –

SECRETARY SPELLINGS: Two hundred and thirty nine public.

THE PRESIDENT: Two hundred thirty nine public schools are Blue Ribbon Schools, and maybe a dozen here in the state of Illinois. This is one of the Blue Ribbon Schools.”

The idea that two hundred and thirty nine public schools are Blue Ribbon Schools makes the number seem very impressive and I do indeed commend those school for rising to the extremely challenging expectations of NCLB. However, when a person considers that Michigan alone has more than that number of public schools on its own it becomes more apparent that the number is not as impressive as it looks at first glance. What do we tell all the students that are in the other thousand of schools in the U.S.? Sorry students you’re just not smart enough, or you’re not working hard enough?

The President mentioned that when he entered the office that it seemed that every school was a Blue Ribbon School. Obviously this is an exaggeration, however, it is valid to note before the NCLB act schools were recognized for their attempts to improve and that any achievement was praised rather than only the elite schools obtaining recognition. Also if the NCLB act is working so well why aren’t there more schools obtaining Blue Ribbons? It has been 6 years, that is ample time for the government to deem schools as failing and to seize control over them, so why haven’t all the schools that the government has taken over achieved Blue Ribbon status?

Full Speech Transcript 

Office of the Press Secretary

January 7, 2008