The Washington Post reports today that some Republican congressmen are defecting from the No Child Left Behind Act, citing “unacceptably onerous” burdens and red tape. Under their new plan, as drafted in House and Senate bills, state governments “could decide that the state would no longer abide by the strict rules on testing and curriculum” and that “[in] both cases, the states that opt out would still be eligible for federal funding.”
Tom Maguire has already coined a phrase for the new GOP plan: Some Children Left Behind.
Incredibly, the Republicans have managed to drive policy further Left than many Democrats who at least agree to the basic formula, even if they consider NCLB an “unfunded mandate.” These 50-some GOP members of the House and Senate are pushing for a rules change that could be considered “unmandated funds.” Yay, free money!
Let’s put that in graphical form.
Exhibit one is No Child Left Behind. The Feds send money to schools, and in response the schools meet certain national educational standards.
Exhibit two is the new GOP plan. Here the Feds send money to schools, and then more money.
A similar proposal is surfacing here in Tennessee, where legislators want to water down the standards for the new Tennessee Lottery Scholarships (soon to be known as the Steve Cohen Scholarships, I understand).
To obtain the scholarships, graduating high-school seniors must have a 3.0 grade point average or score a 21 on the ACT. Students must maintain that B average in college in order to continue receiving $3,800 each academic year.
Now politicians such as Shelby County Mayor A.C. Wharton are unhappy that 64% of recipients lose the scholarship within two years, and they aren’t content with simply lowering the GPA requirement to 2.75. Despite the fact that the same standards and benefits apply to all students, Wharton claims “famililes with lower incomes [are] benefiting less than families with higher incomes.”
Their ultimate solution, of course, is to do away with the requirements altogether and simply hand out the cash. Yay, free money!
You can see a glimpse of that in Governor Bredesen’s new proposal that the State guarantee free tuition at Tennessee community colleges for the next tier of students.
According to Charles Manning, a chancellor at the Tennessee Board of Regents, the free community college program would be a “form of the lottery but for ‘C’ students.”
But what happens when the lottery scholarship starts applying to C students?
Despite what proponents now say about the possibility that “high expectations might motivate students to raise scores,” both programs eventually will apply to all students, regardless of their scholastic achievements and efforts.
Manning is quoted as saying, “We have to lift up our performance expectations by telling students that they have to change their behaviors and get better scores.”
Or we could ignore the motivational aspect of these programs’ requirements and standards altogether and just start writing checks. Yay, free money!
Who cares about accountability when we’ve got children to edjukate?
UPDATE: I appreciate the response at Volunteer Voters.
UPDATE II: I should have known the WaPo report would be less than complete. While I’m still unable to find the bill number at thomas.loc.gov or opencongress.org, I did find a detailed description of the GOP plan at Sen. Jim DeMint’s website. There, you’ll find that standards and accountability haven’t gone out the window — it’s actually a good bill, and provides for more local control. My apologies to the bill’s sponsors.
UPDATE III: More from DeMint at National Review.
