NCLB is an Abomination

President Obama made is first speech devoted to Education today.

CBS News has a full transcript

Last night at the School Board Meeting, we passed a resolution calling on the Federal government to reform the No Child Left Behind abomination. I was encouraged to hear the President say:

And I am calling on our nation’s Governors and state education chiefs to develop standards and assessments that don’t simply measure whether students can fill in a bubble on a test, but whether they possess 21st century skills like problem-solving and critical thinking, entrepreneurship and creativity. That is what we will help them do later this year when we finally make No Child Left Behind live up to its name by ensuring not only that teachers and principals get the funding they need, but that the money is tied to results.

I'll be watching and waiting for "later this year" to see some specifics. He came out strongly for merit-pay for teachers. Again, we'll see what the specifics look like...

The time for holding ourselves accountable is here. What’s required is not simply new investments, but new reforms. It is time to expect more from our students. It is time to start rewarding good teachers and stop making excuses for bad ones. It is time to demand results from government at every level. It is time to prepare every child, everywhere in America, to out-compete any worker, anywhere in the world. It is time to give all Americans a complete and competitive education from the cradle up through a career.

How about a shout out for local control of the school calendar?

We can no longer afford an academic calendar designed when America was a nation of farmers who needed their children at home plowing the land at the end of each day. That calendar may have once made sense, but today, it puts us at a competitive disadvantage. Our children spend over a month less in school than children in South Korea. That is no way to prepare them for a 21st century economy. That is why I’m calling for us not only to expand effective after-school programs, but to rethink the school day to incorporate more time – whether during the summer or through expanded-day programs for children who need it.

Are you listening in St Paul? Apparently not, since you have once again knuckled under to the special-interests and mandated that school not start before Labor Day. Seoul is laughing at St Paul.

I was also encouraged to see that someone from the new administration reads this blog. Back in December I wrote an open letter entitled "the Fate of Empires Depends on the Education of Youth" that was also published in the Waconia Patriot on January 9. Today the President said, "Let there be no doubt: the future belongs to the nation that best educates its citizens - and my fellow Americans, we have everything we need to be that nation." Welcome aboard, sir!

The man promised change. We shall see what he delivers.