N.C.L.B. Underfunded? Hah!

The Federal Government should not be playing a role in controlling our education system since that power was left to the states under our Constitution. However, when the states fail to properly educate our children, it becomes a national problem, threatening our security and economic well being. While the Federal government cannot directly control what goes on in our schools, it can achieve the same thing through the Federal Purse. States and School Districts will agree to do certain things in return for Federal dollars.

Over the years Congress and various administrations have sponsored education programs to address a plethora of issues. Overall, we cannot say things have improved because we are still dissatisfied with the results after 30 years of spending. A number of programs started out well intentioned, but may have created more problems because they came with unacceptable details.

For example, several years ago the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) was intended to ensure privacy of student records. However, because of an expansive interpretation of what constitutes an "education record," FERPA has become an excuse for school districts to conceal what is happening in their classrooms, halls and buses. So, if you want to view a videotape of a class to see how your child is being taught (and how your hard earned tax dollars are being spent), you will be denied under FERPA because it violates the "privacy rights" of other parents'children who might be depicted on the tape. Even teachers have had problems in viewing tapes of their own classes. This is rediculous. THERE IS NO 'PRIVACY RIGHT" of students BECAUSE CONGRESS HAS NO CONSTITUTIONAL AUTHORITY IN THIS AREA. Instead, what is happening is that your Federal tax dollars are being paid to get local bureaucrats to deny you access to the videotaped information. Was there ever a national problem of people getting into student's records with no valid reason? Who knows? The Federal interest in all this is really unclear -- but the purported NEED for FERPA would not be there (if it ever was) if local officials were handling students' records responsibly.

Another Federal requirement is that Special Education students be placed in the "least restrictive environment." This means that Special Ed kids are to be kept in the regular classsroom wherever possible. Common sense would dictate this because students taken out of regular class would miss what goes on in that class and fall behind. Apparently, the federal government recognized what was actually happening and tried to stop it: the wholesale segregation and warehousing of students who had fallen behind as "educationally disabled." The Federal Funds that were addressed to special ed came with a number of onerous "due process" requirements to make sure that student's "rights" are not being violated. As well intended as this was, it unfortunately resulted in a lot of litigation and paperwork, resources that would have been better spent on teaching children. Again, none if this would have been needed if the states had been doing their jobs properly.

Now we have the Federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) -- the latest national response to the national disgrace of our system of public education. Of course, the NEA is complaining about insufficient funding, and even local people are complaining about a lack of funding... What Nonsense. This act does nothing more than give money to the states and school districts to get them TO DO WHAT THEY SHOULD HAVE BEEN DOING ON THEIR OWN (WITH THEIR OWN MONEY): Using effective teaching methods and monitoring progress to ensure that ALL children are learning.. . . But for the educationists, there is NEVER enough money. .. and That will be their excuse when they Make NCLB fail.

But maybe Money for education is indeed the problem . . . Like too much ice cream will make you sick, perhaps there is so much money available for special programs (each with its own special administrative requirements) that our schools now spend too many resources on "compliance" issues and not enough on teaching. Perhaps the Fed should just get out of the Education business altogether and take its money with it.. . . and perhaps we would all be better off for it.

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