Texas fined for No Child defiance

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON - Education Secretary Margaret Spellings fined Texas $444,282 Friday for the state's continued defiance of the No Child Left Behind Act.

For the last two years, the Texas Education Agency has exceeded the federal cap on how many students with learning disabilities can be exempted from regular state testing, mandated by the act, in favor of an easier exam.
...
Minnesota was fined $113,000 by Spelling's predecessor, Rod Paige, for not testing an adequate number of students in 2003.

In January, Paige threatened to fine Texas for noncompliance, but he gave the state time to submit a defense.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3148917

[fasttense]

1. I thought this stupid policy originated in Texas? n/t

[mbperrin]

2. It did, and Ms. Spelling was *'s main lobbyist to push it

through; it's been long enough now that many people are beginning to see it for what it is - a scheme to make money for private test companies, nothing more.

NEA and Texas State Teacher's Association are suing the admin for not providing the funding promised to implement NCLB. That was filed earlier this week, I believe.

When we're rid of it, life will be better.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. it's stupid to require

students with learning disabilities to take the same test as everyone else. To my mind, this would be like requiring paralyzed people to run a 50 yard dash. This whole No Child Left Behind jazz is simply a way to make it so testing companies make big bucks. And teachers are forced not to teach children how to love learning but how to take tests, which have nothing to do with coping with real life situations. I taught in TX two years in the early 90s, and it was ridiculous how much time we were forced to spend teaching kids how to color in the right little circle on tests. No matter that fourth graders couldn't spell "the" (we weren't allowed to teach spelling, btw) or add 1 + 1 without a calculator, or that they couldn't read the textbooks provided (and we weren't allowed to let them read on their reading level), those tests had to be taught every blinkin' day. I'm glad I don't teach any more. All the joy of helping others has been taken from the classroom.

[rodeodance]

7. Neil Bush cashed in on these testing companies--

....This whole No Child Left Behind jazz is simply a way to make it so testing companies make big bucks. ......

[rodeodance]

8. from a Jan, 2005 article on Neil Bush and Educ. software (test taking)

.....Neil Bush founded Ignite Incorporated, a software company that helps students prepare to take comprehensive tests required under the No Child Left Behind act. A phone call by one of the readers of my blog to Ignite's toll free number reached a company directory that was able to locate Neil Bush's extension -- so it's still his baby with the dough rolling in.........

.....Also, Neil is a big fan of outsourcing, one of Shrub's driving influences on our economy. He has made great strides increasing Ignite's profitability by outsourcing Ignite jobs to Mexico. (WP):
For the last several years, Bush's main business interest has been Ignite!, the educational software company he co-founded in 1999. To fund Ignite!, Bush has raised $23 million from U.S. investors (including his parents), as well as businessmen from Taiwan, Japan, Kuwait, the British Virgin Islands and the United Arab Emirates, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission........

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/1/8/125556/7027
No Child Left Behind: Neil Bush cashes in too
by pamindurham
Sat Jan 8th, 2005 at 09:55:56 PDT

Neil Bush has a colorful history, including failed S&Ls, insider stock trading scandals, and well, general Bush family corruption.

[Roland99]

13. NCLB is an abomination.

My sister works in the local public schools. She's a teaching assistant and works with "Exceptional Needs Children". She and everyone she knows in the public school system here despise NCLB.

[diddlysquat]

4. Spelling is trying to squash the rebellion...

and it is just beginning.

[radfringe]

5. the "rebellion" has been going on

it just hasn't been widely reported

the No Child act is a catch-22

in order to receive money students must meet testing scores - but many schools are unable to meet the scores because they lack equipment, books and adequate facilities - to bring the school environment up to a level which encourages learning they need money which they can't get until they meet the testing scores

other than looking to the feds for money (which they can't get) the only other option is to raise local taxes (property/school taxes) - however many of these same schools are located in poor areas where such a raise is not possible

[rodeodance]

6. yes, and punitive policies are what states get from NCLB--like these

fines--or the horror of being placed on a 'bad' school that is failing.

[SalmonChantedEvening]

9. Sheer Evil

Mandate and underfund, and when the mandate is not met, fine already cash-strapped states and schools for failing to meet standards you refuse to pay for.

And deeper into the hole they go.


These people make the Borgias look like the Care Bears.

[emulatorloo]

10. The more kids that fail, the more Bush can CUT FUNDS to the schools

If the schools don't meet their quotas, the funding gets cut. . .at least that's my understanding.

So what better way to ensure they won't meet their quotas then to insist that children w learning disabilities take the regular exam

[prairierose]

11. NCLB is not just about making money for testing companies....

it's also about the punitive aspect of a school district under performing on impossible tests. When a school district does not meet the mandated standards, then revenue can be withheld and it opens the door for taxpayer money being used in school voucher programs to support "christian schools"

Folks, the NCLB is about destroying public education, not about improving it and along the way a few robber barons get to make a whole lot of money with the rigged tests.

[AnneD]

12. PLEASE PLEASE

remember this, the main goal is to discredit public school (via poor bogus test results)and introduce business and the subsequent profit motive into the educational system of the us. Bush et al tried their damndest to intoduce vouchers (which would have taken money out of public school and put into business model private schools). We fought tooth and nail to prevent it. And they are trying to do it on a national scale now.