Headline in my Sunday News: Teachers Behaving Badly

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The story concerns a local teacher charged with sexual misconduct, but it goes on to cover teachers on a state and national level. The story quotes Dr. Carol Shakeshaft, a professor at VCU, who has studied and written extensively about sexual misconduct by teachers. When I looked her up, I found she was hired by the DOE under a mandate buried in the No Child Left Behind Act. She collected data and reported to Congress. Her report covered students ages 5 to 18 and all school employees, including teachers, coaches, bus drivers, counselors and administrators. Although the study was commissioned to look at only sexual abuse, Dr. Shakeshaft, at the time a professor at Hofstra University, chose to broaden the scope to include lesser infractions, such as sexual comments, graffiti and groping. It is my understanding that only public schools were the subject of the report. Private schools are not required to comply with the NCLB Act.

I think the NCLB Act has the potential to dismantle public education and I don't believe it's an accident. The NCLB Act is the centerpiece of the Bush Administration's domestic policy. This carefully crafted law represents the core values of the Christian conservative wing of the Republican Party. These conservatives believe that private enterprise and church schools, using non-union teachers, should replace our public education system. Ideologues within the Bush administration have demonstrated their willingness to go to war to further their beliefs. Like the WMD lies that led us into Iraq, I think the Bush administration is using exaggerated SEX charges against our teachers in an effort to rally the American people against our public education system. Does anyone have any first hand knowledge of other mandates hidden within this legislation?