Presidential Politics, Crazy Talk, and Preparing for Life in a Post-NCLB World

Abstract

I AM A NEWS junkie--a watcher of cable network news; a reader of blogs, websites, and newspapers; and a big fan of YouTube. For some time, I've been feeding my habit by watching Presidential campaign shenanigans. Things have been humming along rather nicely for about a year. Candidates and their surrogates have been blustering about some issues--same-sex marriage, immigration, stem cell research, and granting clemency. And they and the press have shown intense interest in John Edwards' $400 haircut, Rudy Giuliani's divorces, the illegal immigrants mowing Mitt Romney's grass, Dennis Kucinich's UFO sighting, and whether Barack Obama black enough. But, much to my surprise, they have seldom discussed education. I always get nervous when politicians express interest in education. seem to know so little and to have even less interest in learning more. But they always want to help. last time they helped, the congressional brain trust created the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. Looking at the result, I'd say education has had just about all the political help it can stand. In fact, if our public schools get much more of this kind of help, they might just collapse. So I was watching the Republican Presidential candidates debate the other day, and I heard the strangest thing. When NPR moderator Carolyn Washburn asked participants to comment on the obstacles to high-quality education, I braced myself. Fred Thompson huffed, The biggest obstacle ... the National Education Association. NEA. Ah, yes. good ole NEA, the terrorist organization, education's own Evil Empire. They're always a good target. However, I've never seen the organization--the union--display enough muscle to get adequate pay for its members. Yet this mild-mannered organization somehow musters the strength to all but stop NCLB? I doubt it. But it a convenient answer to the question if you have no other. Alan Keyes disagreed with Thompson. According to him, the obstacle the activist judges whom we have allowed ... to drive God out of our schools. Now, I'm pretty sure I spend a lot more time in schools than Keyes does, and I have to say that I see God's presence quite regularly. In fact, I recently watched from my seat in the audience as three kings entered stage left and moved slowly toward a babe in a manger while a fifth-grade choir belted out We Three Kings. It was a public school Christmas pageant. That's pretty much God stuff, I'd say. So, Keyes can relax. As they continued, I began devising a game in which I rewarded myself with a rich, dark chocolate every time one of these debaters responded with tired and hollow rhetoric about the global economy and high-quality education and school choice. That's when the moderator called on Mike Huckabee. When he spoke, the vision of stuffing myself with chocolates disappeared. Education, he said, is really a state issue ... not a federal issue, and the worst thing we can do shift more authority to the federal government. Amen, I heard myself say aloud--being, as I am, in favor of bulldozing the U.S. Department of Education, at least figuratively. Then it happened. He said something so strange that I expected to hear Rod Serling's voice welcoming me to the Twilight Zone. We need to personalize the learning for the student, he said. We have 6,000 kids every day drop out in this country, he continued. They drop out because they're bored to death. Let me say that again. Mike Huckabee, a major Republican Presidential candidate, actually said, They drop out because they are bored to death. Not because they don't get tested enough or because their schools didn't make adequate yearly progress or use a Reading First program. drop out because they are bored. Given that NCLB has been in control of education for years, it must mean that Huckabee believes that the programs and practices supported by No Child Left Behind bore students. …