By Jennifer Gaucher

Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan admits in a Washington Post op-ed, January 3, 2011, that ‘the urgency for education reform has never been greater. American students trail many other nations in reading, math and science and a quarter of them do not graduate high school.’ He claims that there are many issues of concern with No Child Left Behind (NCLB) previously known as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).

Not a great success story for a bloated and inept agency that was created 30 years ago to improve the quality of the nation’s public schools. A three decade long decline of the Scholastic Aptitude Test is further evidence that confirms American students are falling further behind their European and Asian counterparts.

Federal K-12 support was initiated in 1965 with the enactment of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). It authorizes grants for children of low-income families, school library resources, textbooks and other instructional materials, supplemental education centers and services, strengthening state education agencies, education research and professional development for teachers, according to the ed.gov website.

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 reauthorized ESEA for the purposes of raising student achievement at all levels and closing achievement gaps both to be achieved through accountability, research based instruction, flexibility and options for parents.

Secretary Duncan highlights the major challenges of NCLB facing the new Congress and suggests that now is the time for bipartisan governing. He claims that neither Democrats nor Republicans like the NCLB’s one-size-fits-all mandates and they especially do not like how NCLB labels schools as failures. Both parties are aware that the accountability provisions of NCLB have caused states to drastically lower standards and educators to teach primarily to the test without regard for a well rounded education. The teacher quality provisions of NCLB are also an abysmal failure. The system has been rigged to favor indoctrinated educators only. Real world experience is considered taboo in the Education Establishment.

‘ No reform is possible until you take the classroom back from the teachers unions. For almost 50 years now the best and brightest have not become teachers because the best can only be paid as much as the worst. Convert the “shop floor” control to a professional environment and you will improve the talent and then our schools will have a chance to improve,’ a comment posted by JCVA, 1/3/2011 at 10:25:07 AM in response to School Reform: A chance for bipartisan governing by Arne Duncan in the Washington Post, 1/3/1011.

In another op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal, January 3, 2011, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush boasts that ‘accountability is working in Florida’s schools. In 1998, nearly half of its fourth-graders were functionally illiterate. Today, 72% of them can read. While preparing kids for college and careers starts on the first day of kindergarten, the first good indicator of their chances for success may come in fourth grade. That is when students transition from learning to read to reading to learn. A Manhattan Institute study found that students who can’t read and yet are promoted fall further behind over time.’

Bush is hoping that newly elected Governors across the country will recognize Florida’s successful educational reform experiences over the last decade and possibly implement some of the formulas that have proven effective. He says ‘that teacher accountability is maintained with rewards and consequences and responsibilities of educators are clearly defined, easily understood and uniformly enforced but he emphasizes that school choice is the catalytic converter that accelerates the benefits of all other education reforms.’

Out of 2.7 million students, approximately 300,000 opt for alternative school choice programs. Research from the Manhattan Institute shows that Florida’s public schools have improved in the face of competition provided by public school choice, charter schools, vouchers for pre-K students, virtual schools, tax-credit scholarships and vouchers for students with disabilities, according to the article.

As Founder and Chairman of the Board at the Foundation for Excellence in Education, Bush has legitimate bragging rights. The mission of the foundation is ‘to ignite a movement of reform, state by state, to transform education for the 21st century.’ Their guiding principles believe that ‘all children can learn, that all children should learn at least a year’s worth of knowledge in a year’s time and that all children will achieve when education is organized around the singular goal of student success.’ See excelined.org for more information.

The closed loop Educational Establishment is incrementally unraveling. Its monopoly on information and its protection from competition are being outed as inhibitors of student achievement and impeders of educational opportunities.

Arne Duncan and the Obama administration are reauthorizing ESEA with new and improved top-down goals to address the issues of ‘more flexibility and fairness in our accountability program, a bigger investment in teachers and principals, and a sharper focus on schools and students most at risk.’ But reforms from the top down have repeatedly resulted in less accountability, less flexibility, lower standards and fewer consequences for failure.

The latest Department of Education program is a $4.35 billion ‘Race to the Top’ seduction grant designed to spur reforms in state and local district K-12 education. Massachusetts has secured $250 million over 4 years in 'Race to the Top' funding competition to promote reform in four areas, standards and assessments, great teachers and leaders, school turnaround and data systems, according to the mass.edu website. To be eligible for the money Massachusetts had to adopt federal Common Core Standards for math and English. Adherence to these new guidelines is expected to cost tens of millions of dollars before cash-strapped school districts receive the remainder of the funds. The money is expected to help under performing schools, 1. foster innovative programs, 2. turn around poor performing school districts, and 3. improve graduation rates. More monies being appropriated to grow the Education Establishment is not ‘change we can believe in,’ it is more of the same obscurant and dominant bloatocracy.

Governor Jeb Bush has succinctly demonstrated that successful reform in education is bottom up. ‘Quality education starts with recognizing that all students matter and that school choice, energized parents and a committed community can demand accountability that yields positive results. Florida’s experience busts the myth that poverty, language barriers, absent parents, and broken homes explain failure in school. It is simply not true. Our experience proves that leadership, courage and an unwavering commitment to reform—not demographics or demagoguery—will determine our destiny as a nation.’