On Saturday, The New York Times reported that the Obama administration is calling “for a broad overhaul of President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind law, proposing to reshape divisive provisions that encouraged instructors to teach to tests, narrowed the curriculum, and labeled one in three American schools as failing.” Praising Mr. Obama’s efforts, the NY Times noted that: “The administration would replace the law’s pass-fail school grading system with one that would measure individual students’ academic growth and judge schools based not on test scores alone but also on indicators like pupil attendance, graduation rates and learning climate.” http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/14/education/14child.html?ref=politics But did the teacher’s unions have the same glowing praise for the President’s proposed changes?

In statements made to the USA Today, Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said teachers “should be empowered and supported — not scapegoated.” Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association, said the union was expecting a broader effort. Instead, the blueprint still relies on standardized tests and “too much top-down scapegoating of teachers and not enough collaboration.” http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2010-03-14-education_N.htm

While there are many to blame for the current state of our Nation’s failing schools, asking the federal government to dictate the direction and administration of our education system will never lead to a successful outcome. In his 2011 budget summary for the Department of Education, the President noted that “The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) delivered nearly $100 billion to States and school districts to help address budget shortfalls… http://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/budget11/summary/11summary.pdf Now the administration wants to throw even more money at the problem than last year ($77.8 billion up $3.5 billion from 2010) tied to its massive education bureaucracy ($1.8 billion budget and almost 4,000 full-time employees). Is this the future for our next generation—constant tinkering from the politically-driven politicians and bureaucrats in Washington. How can students ever be expected to know what is important in their education if the “adults” continually change the “rules?”

Maybe we should return the control of our schools back to the states and eliminate the Department of Education. This would push the responsibility for education closer to the end-users (parents, teachers and students) and eliminate a large federal expenditure for administrators in the process.