NCLB: Strange Bedfellows Sprung from Opting Out
NCLB: Strange Bedfellows Sprung from Opting Out
The 2010 state elections in South Carolina struck a disturbing blow against progressive and critical supporters of public education with the election of a governor, Nikki Haley, who strongly supports school choice, and a superintendent of education, Mick Zais, without experience in public education and who endorses vouchers, expanding charter schools, teacher accountability linked to merit pay and student test scores, and reducing government spending as a matter of policy.
Yet, Zais has pursued two policies I strongly support—cutting funding for a self-defeating pursuit of raising both SAT participation and scores and rejecting the allure of funding promised in the Obama administration's Race to the Top—and seems poised to embrace a third—opting out of No Child Left Behind (NCLB)—that could prove to
The 2010 state elections in South Carolina struck a disturbing blow against progressive and critical supporters of public education with the election of a governor, Nikki Haley, who strongly supports school choice, and a superintendent of education, Mick Zais, without experience in public education and who endorses vouchers, expanding charter schools, teacher accountability linked to merit pay and student test scores, and reducing government spending as a matter of policy.
Yet, Zais has pursued two policies I strongly support—cutting funding for a self-defeating pursuit of raising both SAT participation and scores and rejecting the allure of funding promised in the Obama administration's Race to the Top—and seems poised to embrace a third—opting out of No Child Left Behind (NCLB)—that could prove to
