NCLB

I read an interesting article in The School Administrator magazine this week. The article was titled, The Public Seems to Get It by William Bushaw, executive director of Phi Delta Kappan International. In this article he laments folly of Congressional Republicans who last summer proposed spending $100 million to fund vouchers for low-income students attending “failing” schools. U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spelling, supported this move saying, “When schools don’t work, parents must have other opportunities.” Mr. Bushaw contents that this is just the latest example of policy makers embracing an education policy that is not supported by the public nor supported by research.

Data from the latest Phi Delta Kappan Gallop Poll of Public Attitudes Toward Public Education refutes these actions. Mr. Bushaw says “We were amazed, as we are every year, at the public’s ability to separate myth from reality and arrive at an accurate assessment of their public schools”. He continues to point out that based on the latest poll Americans support their public schools and a majority feels that NCLB is either hurting their public schools or making no difference in their schools. It is too bad that our leaders in Washington will not acknowledge that most Americans support their public schools and spend their $100 million on improving schools instead of vouchers! There is a failure, but it is a failure of leadership in the political realm and not of the public schools. See the entire PDK/Gallop Poll on the Public’s Attitudes Towards the Public Schools at www.pdkintl.org.