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Current
Articles, Interviews and Commentary
 No
Child Left Behind
Commentator John Merrow says President Bush's education plan doesn't
offer enough incentives for schools to improve, but neither did president
Clinton's plan.
(originally broadcast on NPR's Morning Edition with Bob Edwards on
February 25, 2002)
 Like
most federal laws, the "No Child Left Behind" Education Act contains
both carrots and sticks. It raises the bar for schools, requires lots
of testing and includes sticks for whacking failing schools.
There's a carrot for parents in schools that fail three years in a
row. After that time, parents can use school money to pay for private
tutoring.
Naturally, this big carrot has Sylvan Learning Systems, Kaplan and
other tutoring services salivating. But where are the carrots for
the failing schools? All the law says is that the school district
must provide unspecified 'supplemental services'.
The whole world--which includes President Bush and the US Congress–
knows that two keys to school success are strong leadership and well-trained,
effective teachers. We know that distressed urban schools get the
newest, worst-trained and least effective teachers. May of these schools
have a 25% turnover in teaching staff every year. I spent much of
last year reporting from an urban public elementary school that's
had four principals in five years.
Neither states nor local school districts seem to be able to turn
around failing schools. For example, a local 'carrot' approach--offering
money to the best teachers--alienates parents whose schools are losing
those teachers.
Sticks do not work. Seniority provisions keep teachers from being
reassigned. The school superintendent in Richmond, Virginia, lost
her job when she began reassigning principals to the neediest schools.
Simply removing ineffective teachers and principals is not a solution.
As one Los Angeles teacher noted, "That's an empty threat. Nobody's
waiting for our jobs."
The President has called upon Americans to serve, to give back. Many
citizens, motivated by idealism, are joining programs like Teach for
America and the New York City Teaching Fellows Program. But the success
of these schools, and their pupils, should not have to depend on the
kindness of strangers.
If President Bush and the US Congress really want to help failing
schools, they could provide federal tax credits to those willing to
serve in them. A credit of, say, five to eight thousand dollars a
year would attract and keep the kind of people failing schools need.
The President's reluctance to provide carrots makes me wonder whether
he's serious about helping failing schools ... or merely trolling
for votes.
And this administration is not the first to just 'talk the talk.'
Harvard's new president has called upon his university's graduate
school of education to 'rescue' public education. Funny he should
be issuing that challenge now... and to others. In his previous job
as President Clinton's Secretary of the Treasury, Lawrence Summers
could have done it himself. |
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