Act forces schools to cheat to survive

An Associated Press news story dated Jan. 10, 2005, reported that a Dallas Morning News investigation has "found strong evidence that educators at nearly 400 schools statewide helped students cheat on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills." The AP goes on to note that "Texas education policies on student accountability became the model for the federal No Child Left Behind law enacted after then-Gov. George W. Bush's election as president in 2000."

Unfortunately, this news comes hot on the heels of the revelation that the Bush White House secretly paid talk-show host Armstrong Williams nearly a quarter million dollars to regularly trumpet the benefits of No Child Left Behind, double as an administration media attack dog on the issue, and all-too-regularly interview Education Secretary Rod Paige to sell the bill to Americans.

To be fair, No Child Left Behind has accomplished at least a couple of things:

1. The bill has managed to gut the arts from public school curriculum

2. It has replaced the exploratory, adventurous nature of learning with standardized testing and public humiliation of schools that "fail."

3. It has created an environment where some public school administrators and teachers in other parts of the country have openly spoken out against having learning-disabled students in their classrooms for fear they will "drag down test scores."

Bottom line: No Child Left Behind has forced the very state that acted as its model to cheat in order to make the grade. Further, the White House found it necessary to cheat in order to buy media coverage in favor of the act.

I suppose we should find solace in the fact that George W. Bush did not cheat during his time at Yale. Had he done so, he certainly would have managed to eke out something a bit higher than the solid "C" average shown in his college records.

David Gunter

Sandpoint