A Blueprint for Reform

The U.S. Department of Education released its Blueprint for Reform which is the department's re-authorization of the No Child Left Behind Act. After reading through the 45 page document, I arrived at the following conclusions:

The document begins to explain the standards of reform. The first standard is to raise the standards for all students. Housed inside the standard is this sentence,

"Every student should graduate from high school ready for college and a career, regardless of their income, race, ethnic or language background, or disability status."

While this is certainly is an admirable goal, it is also an unrealistic goal and impossible for several reasons. First, there are many factors required in graduating from any high school. The school and its factors are only one of many. Family, income, demographics, and motivation are all factors and are all outside of governmental control. The cold hard fact is that once a student reaches high school these factors matter much more than the school and its factors. Second, statistically speaking, every student will not improve and will not graduate. It just will not happen, and to actually have it as an achievable goal is short-sighted.
And, finally, no matter how much money is spent, the playing field will never be level.

Another section of the report focuses on greater equity. The following language is found there.

"To give every student a fair chance to succeed, and give principals and teachers the resources to support student success, we will call on school districts and states to take steps to ensure equity, by such means as moving toward comparability in resources between high- and low-poverty schools."

What does this actually mean? How will states foster this move "toward comparability" between all school and different performing schools?

The report goes on to suggest that the federal government will support "public school choice" and promote a "culture of college readiness and success." Public school choice is no choice at all if the choice excludes independent and faith-based school choice. A culture of college readiness and success will not begin to take place unless factors outside the school also change.

There is much more to read in the report; it expounds on many of the standards presented earlier in the report. There are some goals worthy of pursuing, but, for the most part, the report is one filled with ambiguous language and generalities difficult to interpret and even more difficult to apply.

Real educational change will take place when there becomes an open market for educational choice that includes independent and faith-based schools as well as public schools. Parents must be given the right to educate their children in the school of their choice. Competition, real competition not limited competition, will again push U.S. schools back to the top where they belong if it is fostered and allowed to exist. If we want to be excellent once again, we must not use our schools and our students for political purposes. You would have thought we were past this with all that we have "supposedly learned," but the future is often full of the past, even in education. Blessings!