Bad Program Title Left Behind

Today, President Obama met with the nation's Governors, telling them how the Federal Government is no longer using "No Child Left Behind", and instead of trying to punish failing schools, they will be focusing on propagating successful schools of schools. My older brother and his wife are both tenured public school elementary teachers in Indiana. Dr Desert Flower's step mother is a retired special education teacher in Ohio. I've NEVER heard a teacher worth their salt PRAISE "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB). I've heard many a teacher (related, and unrelated) lament in disgust how NCLB forces them to "teach to the test" and it has no means of accounting for special needs children who it lumps in with the exact same standards as all other students. NCLB has been a failure, over-all, as America continues it's slide towards greater illiteracy and fewer High School graduates.

Hoorah for the Obama Administration for making some meaningful changes. Sucks that it took them a year to get to this one, but when you inherit a wet and leaking bag of excrement, you can only make so many changes at one time. Terrorist guilty pleas, Don't Ask / Don't Tell momentum being moved towards change, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the saviour Petraeus both commenting publicly that diplomacy is more important than bombs and missile strikes, and now NCLB being left behind.

February is looking to be a rather positive month for this Administration.