Shakopee Valley News - House panel votes to opt out of No Child Left Behind law - Comments

Well said Shannon. You will

chuck.berg — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 22:00:32 -0500

Well said Shannon. You will see no tears of regret from school leaders around the state.

And lets not forget the

kidjon — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 19:30:41 -0500

And lets not forget the Clinton's "Goals 2000". All States would do well by opting out of NCLB, Goals 2000, Outcome Based Education or whatever education plan that comes out of DC. The Federal government does not belong in education, it is a State issue. I believe the Dept of Education should be abolished just like Ronald Reagan wanted to do. The Federal government being involved in education goes like this; "Residents of Minnesota, give politicians and bureaucrats in Washington DC $10 for education, and we will give you $6 back". Not to mention all the strings that come attached to that $6 you are getting back.

No matter their political

sfiecke — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 12:51:28 -0500

No matter their political stripe, no one I know likes NCLB. Educators hate it because they have to teach to the test and schools can be flagged (and later punished) for matters out of their control- like how many students decide to skip the day of the test. And if you happen to have a bunch of kids new to the country who are still learning English and they fail the test, it fails the whole school. That doesn't make sense.

The tests don't seem to measure progress of individual students; instead they just seem to take snapshots of a particular group at a particular time. The federal government has had to contantly fix the program to try to make it work. Why would Minnesota let itself be kept hostage to a program no one believes is actually helping children?? (And if you think it is helping, please speak up, because I haven't heard an argument for the program).

The only argument I've heard for keeping NCLB is that Minnesota would lose federal dollars. Crazy how the federal government can bribe a state to actually do harm to its students.

If Minnesota is really about improving the education of our students, dumping NCLB should be worth the financial penalty (which some argue would be neglible because of the dollars wasted on implementing NCLB). If enough states say NO, maybe the federal government will finally scrap NCLB.

An even bigger question is why we let the federal gov. dictate at all how Minnesota educates its children. The state seems to do a much better job at this than other states. The federal programs (remember Outcome Based Education) only end up being scrapped later b/c they prove to be ineffective and too much of a one size fits all solution.

Wouldn't it be better to experiment with such concepts on a per state basis before mandating the whole nation follow them? I'm no educator, but that seems like a pretty common sense approach.

House panel votes to opt out of No Child Left Behind law

Pat Minelli — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 17:50:38 -0500

ST. PAUL – As the federal government debates renewal of the so-called “No Child Left Behind” education program, Minnesota House Education Committee today approved a plan to opt out of the program no matter what the federal government chooses to do.