The Orbis

Teachers, principals, and administrators overwhelmingly support the underlying idea of No Child Left Behind (NCLB): America’s education system needs accountability. Their complaint: right idea, poorly executed. Government mandated accountability is not sufficient. It will never guarantee excellence and improvement in America’s schools.

But NCLB has not failed simply because of government-mandated accountability. Nor did it fail due simply by being under funded by $27 billion. Bush’s No Child Left Behind has failed because it leaves no teacher left standing.

NCLB dictates how teachers run their classrooms. It mandates lesson plans and progress points. Students must achieve certain levels of improvement within a given timeframe; the law establishes arbitrary levels of proficiency and demands that teachers magically enable their students to reach these levels. NCLB takes away the ability of teachers to teach, all in the name of vague standards labeled “progress” and “achievement.”

Everyday millions of American teachers blend the goals of education with the needs of the students, fabricating a classroom environment that factors in the students’ economic background, personalities, sense of humor and family history so that learning may occur.

Democrats often denounce NCLB but Democrats must remember that John Kerry does not plan to scrap the law. Instead, Kerry’s plan would reform the demands of NCLB into a more realistic form of accountability, allowing teachers to teach once again.

Kerry’s education plan articulates four important methods of reform: a national education trust fund, making reform work for our students, putting a great qualified teacher in every classroom, and creating a “school’s open ‘til six” program to allow 3.5 million children to participate in after school programs.

The most important of these is the creation of a national trust fund. Congress allocates education funds at whim. Local communities also bear the bulk of financing local schools. The problem is that standards of accountability are federally dictated, but state and local government controls the majority of financingThe Kerry-Edwards trust fund would fully fund education, and would free up financing from the claws of Congress. The result will be the hiring of more teachers, smaller classrooms, individualized help for students, and involving parents in the classroom once again. While programs like Teach for America and school vouchers offer help to disadvantaged students, such charity often chokes the system, distracting us from inherent injustices. We need to re-imagine the system and circumvent the injustice.

The National Education Association — an endorser of John Kerry — recently stated, “the law’s emphasis needs to shift from applying sanctions for failing to raise test scores to holding states and localities accountable for making the systemic changes that improve student achievement.” Well said. With a little reform, NCLB will work for teachers and students. Teachers know this, and Kerry’s plan will allow them to do their jobs. With John Kerry in office, No Child Left Behind will truly leave no child behind.

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