Is the No child left behind act an unfunded mandate?
152208
it is an unfunded mandate--in fact a friend of mine is the Attorney General of the State of Connecticut and he is suing the federal government over the fact that it is an unfunded mandate.
1025178
Absolutely NOT.  This is in front of the California legislature right now in State Senate Bill 160 which goes beyond in-state tuition to provide financing.  It is subsidies like these, which put illegals in front of US citizen children from other states that make it so attractive to illegals to come here.  Everyone focusses on the 'employment magnet' but how many of you make sacrifices for your kids' education?\n\nThese magnets have to be removed, separately from whatever happens to the illegals already here, or we will never meaningfully reduce the flow across the border.\n\nProvisions to pave the way for this are also in the Senate Immigration bill.  Just one more reason it is a bad bill.
385704
No Child Left Behind requires that a lot of ridiculous standardized testing is done for every student every year.  The tests mean nothing to the students and they often just fill in the ovals and don't even read the questions, but then the government decides which schools are bad and which are good based on these tests.  Not everyone has to take the ASVAB's and ACT's, so they have to have some tests that ALL students are required to take.  You can thank our politicians for this.
179157
Absolutely not. Thats why so many conservatives are angry with him.  Instead of cutting waste and excess spending, he is contributing to it and allowing Congress to do the same.\n\nSpecifically in regards to education, No Child Left Behind is one of the largest social programs created (bipartisanly, I might add).
548968
looking at no child left behind... I almost start to wonder if this isn't trying to destroy an already underfunded education system... \n\nWith no public education...the wealthy would be the only ones that could afford to become educated and then keep control of their wealth through that control of education... \n\nah... capitalism at it's best...\n\nDon't you just love how freetyme813 insults basically every American with his rants on public school... almost everyone attends public school and if we're all that "stupid" then why did the majority vote for conservatives?\nTest scores are at all time highs... so if he's calling today's kids dumb... and you graduated a long time ago like I did... then he's calling all of us really dumb....\nI think we all know who the "dumb" one is here...\nSorry we didn't go to private school because our daddy was rich like you apparently did... some of us have to actually work for what we have...
581448
Absolutely. Conservatives have been trying to abolish the Department of Education ever since it was created in the 1970s.\n\nThe standards NCLB sets are so ridiculous that most districts will be hard pressed to pass them, and are therefore labeled "failed" schools. If you school fails, your funding is cut off, making it ever more difficult to raise standards because you have ever fewer resources.\n\nIt's a well-designed plan to make it look like Bush cares about education, while in reality shafting the public education system.\n\nHouse Democrats have done some good work on this:\nhttp://www.house.gov/budget_democrats/analyses/spending/education_nov1303.pdf\n\nhttp://www.house.gov/budget_democrats/analyses/education_bush_history.pdf
85672
well every person has to have top grade education for free. but the no child left behind is only focused on a random choice of people. im doing bad, and my teacher says," fail, we dont care." and another teacher told me," do something like drugs or do anyhting illegal, but dont disturb the class!!!"
388195
I personally have some issues with the No Child Left Behind Act.  Most schools who follow this act will do anything to make sure that each child passes and moves on to the next grade even if it means "fixing" the grades a bit.\nIt's an interesting topic and there is soooo much information on the web about it.  Good Luck with the paper
1070206
1. Yes.\n2. Regardless of a child's family background, finding and building that child's full potential will create more fully productive adults, and will find more of those "diamonds in the rough." Equal funding creates better chances for those from poverty areas to access the instruction and materials they need to gain the skills to become part of the productive work force.\n3. Absolutely it affects education. Lowered funding means increased class sizes and less materials to work with. The top two in-classroom variables for student success are student to teacher ratios (lower being better), and an intelligent and well-trained teacher. (The top overall variable being student economic class background).\n4. Statewide tests are a joke. They are in place for two reasons... the first being that they are a money-making industry with strong lobbyists, and the second being that the Bush administration wants to scapegoat teachers rather than being straightforward about wanting to cut Education out of the Federal budget (it isn't a Constitutionally defined federal area, anyway). \n\nTrue accountability can be easily implemented through the following steps:\n1. students pass at 80% (B-average), not 60% (D-average), and passing to the next grade must be documented and justified, rather than having to justify retention (students being retained more than once in their school careers should be placed with additional supports, such as remedial classes with even smaller teacher-student ratios, and/or special education supports)\n2. student achievement documented through portfolios demonstrating pre- and post-instruction work and tests, addressing the state standards and benchmarks. The tests can be the unit tests the teachers are using anyway already.\n3. Accountability for attendance (excepting severe health issues...requiring special education and homebound instruction) and behavior (excepting Emotional disorders requiring special education and possible alternative placements) should be held entirely by the parents, not the schools. Right now, schools are held entirely accountable for both, and can lose AYP for these issues.\n4. All the funding and staffing by states currently used for state testing, should be placed into independent auditors of student portfolios on a random sampling basis.\n5. If the Bush administration wants to end Federal funding for Education, bite the bullet and have the courage to say so, with a plan to ease Federal control back to total state control over a 5 year period, with a direct transfer of federal income taxation to state income taxation percentages to cover the change. Federal taxation can be graually increased again, anyway.\n\nSorry, that's to logical and simple.
243822
If it's not the worst, it's certainly in the running.\n\nUnder-funded???  Beth, you are mad!  There is more money wasted on public education in this country than is spent altogether in most other countries.\n\nThe problem seems to be the extent to which two basic entities have taken over control of what was traditionally a very locally-controlled institution.  The first is the teacher's union, which turns upside-down every value that made those great old teachers I had as a child so worthwhile.  They stayed in their jobs because they were good at them, got good results.  Nowadays the union protects the marginal, makes war on the superior teacher (makes the rest look bad, you know), and makes seniority virtually the only criterion they will consider valid.\n\nThe other thing that happened was the federal government getting involved in funding programs that they then control.  This means the local school board has less and less control over what goes on in their school, because they don't dare risk losing that federal money.  So the textbooks are all Politically Correct, even if they don't teach the kids anything useful at all.  The teachers are actually disciplined for creativity, because they can't get any creative program approved if it cannot be used "for everyone."  They are ordered to teach for the purpose of preparation for the exit exams, and discipline is nothing but a game they play with the students.\n\nI do not envy any kid going to a public school these days, but one:  the one who had a black tee shirt that read "School prepares you for the real world, which also s**ks."
225313
No Child Left Behind Act is what I just did mine on.  If you want any info about it just contact me.
944010
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Child_Left_Behind_Act
583967
No.\n\nAll states are legally required to provide a free, appropriate public education to students.
946910
No Child Left Behind is a joke.  The perception is that more money is the solution.  Offer private school vouchers and watch the cost become a fraction of what it does now.
109054
It depends on what issues you are talking about. For example, the "No child left behind" act is a Federal program (in theory it is meant to help improve education in this country) but the Governemt is only telling the state what to do and what standard to meet. The Federal Goverment needs to back that up with Federal money and not just enforce the rules it made up.\n\nIf you could define the issues/programs/concerns that a State should control VS. Federal Control your question could be answered more effectively
1090801
Education and healthcare. Call me boring, but that's where it's needed most. I would divide it between the two. And I was reading what one person said about teaching the English language--believe me, that is not a priority. There are special needs kids in schools who aren't getting the attention they deserve due to budget cuts. Do your homework before you open your mouth, or rather, before you type something prejudicial instead of useful. The English studies come secondary to that.
1146649
No, because the students who do not want to be in school are a big distraction.  It would be a good idea if all students wanted to go, but I doubt it's going to happen as long as school is mandatory.  So it's an untenable rule:  the benefits disappear as soon as it's enforced.