A strong public education is critical to maintaining American leadership in the world. No Child Left Behind is failing our children and must be repealed. A "one size fits all" style standardized test is not a good measure of education. When we determine a school is failing, we can be sure that cutting the funding to that school will not solve the problem.
Education is vital to maintaining our competitiveness in a global economy. We must ensure that every American is given the opportunity that education brings. Effective public education is required for us to ensure that we have a workforce that can compete in the global economy.
Rigid adherence to standardized testing does not ensure that children are educated to their full potential. Reliance on standardized tests results in a system that "teaches the test," and not a system that teaches creative and rational thinking skills that are required in our quickly changing world. By relying solely on standardized tests, we short change other areas that deserve attention. We know that children who learn perspective in Art class will be able to learn Algebra more easily. We know that children who learn Music perform better in Math class. We know that children who have a good Physical Education program will be more alert in their History class. And we know that children who learn foreign languages will not only be more competitive in our global economy, they will also be more able to adapt to new situations in our rapidly changing technological age. We do need to teach Reading, Writing and Arithmetic, but we also need to provide our children with a well rounded education that develops their creative and thinking skills. Standardized testing emphasizes some skills at the expense of others. We need, instead, to focus on Individual Education Plans that focus on the individual skills and challenges each child faces, and measure improvement child by child, not school by school.
We must ensure that our public schools are adequately funded. Public schools systems are run by local governments, as they should be. Each area has unique community needs and unique area interests. Each jurisdiction should be able to design the educational system that works for their community. But we need to make sure that this local control is not used as an excuse to permit poor neighborhoods to have poor schools, while quality schools are limited to rich neighborhoods. We must also ensure that schools are prepared to handle the challenges of changing population demographics, especially in areas where new homes are being built rapidly. When we identify schools that are having difficulty in accomplishing their mission of education, we should ensure they have the resources they need to succeed. The resources that are required under the No Child Left Behind Act have not been funded. This unfunded federal mandate violates federal policy and puts an unfair burden on local school systems. When the federal government puts a requirement on state and local governments, it must be responsible for providing the funding to accomplish those required actions. Without funding, the requirement is meaningless.
The No Child Left Behind Act has failed, and should be repealed. The funding promised as part of this legislation has not been provided. The policies that are being imposed are unreasonable and unworkable. For example, one requirement is that every high school must increase their graduation rate every year. The graduation rate in Frederick County is already above 98%. If they do not improve for two consecutive years, they will face cuts in federal funding. The only way this requirement can be met is to intentionally drive down graduation rates every other year, so there can be an increase in the following year. This sort of gamesmanship is the result of unreasonable, inflexible standards and it does not help our children. The No Child Left Behind Act should be repealed.
