Reality Check
How many Americans care about preserving the institution of public education?
REALITY: Not enough!
******Reality******
Proof? No Child Left Behind(NCLB) was Introduced in the House by John Boehner on March 22, 2001 and its destruction of public schools has gone on, and on, and on for 14 years — even though its faults were immediately recognized.
That is the reality as demonstrated in this September 2001 article by Gary Ratner, Director of Citizens for Effective Schools.
“Its approach, increasing accountability, does not address the fundamental need: providing effective teaching, challenging curriculum and family support for all students.”
What is NCLB?
“[NCLB]…is essentially just federal reinforcement of the states’ decade-old ‘standards, assessments and accountability’ movement……But history shows that approach is wholly inadequate……More of the same will not work…”
And Ratner and his organization developed a coalition of other like-minded organizations and individuals. They tried to draw attention to the problems with NCLB and to offer better solutions. One attempt was a full-page open letter to President Bush and Congress.
“The current Act fails to remedy the underlying problem: the need to dramatically improve the level and quality of Industrial Age teaching and family support for the millions of students the system never previously expected to perform well academically.”
Gary’s efforts, and those of many others, have continued. But the thing about Gary Ratner is that he actually organized and presented better ideas to Congress in 2004, wrote a better critique of NCLB than congressional members ever attempted, and even went so Reality Check - The Crucial VoiceThe Crucial Voice: