No Child Allowed Ahead – An American Education

While the US economy is struggling to recover from the recession wrought from our imprudent ways, we have received yet another reality check on the soundness of our societal commitment to educating our children. Relative to other nations that we compete with on the international stage, the US continues to decline as others advance. We recede in math, sciences and reading and wonder why our nation struggles to provide the skilled and capable employees needed by American businesses. And what was the great undertaking by our political leaders, an unfunded mandate called “No Child Left Behind” by the Bush administration that seems to have achieved its goal not by elevating the achievement of our schools but by holding back those students who managed succeed thus preventing any other child from being left behind. If no one succeeds, then no one is left behind.
With the Obama administration, our school system is going to succeed by a “Race to the Top” spending more money on education. It does sound more achievement oriented then its predecessor's touchy-feelly random walk approach; but its going to run up against some significant resistance in the cut-spending campaign that will be a non-stop political whipping post for the next two years.
Is it possible that the political parties are in favor of a poorly educated public. We just had a Republican and Democratic compromise on the continuation of the Bush era tax-cuts (now to be known as the Obama era tax cuts) that continues to underfund Government revenues while simultaneously spending more. I suppose as long as Americans can't do the math, aren't capable of reading and understanding what is happening in the world, and don't have a scientific comprehension of the forces at work in their lives that I can't be surprised that they have elected the type of politicians who would continue to pursue the most idiotic and addle-brained policies that have failed to make a difference.
If America wants an education system that creates the competitive and world-leading citizenry essential to sustaining our democracy and economic vitality then the public (and their representatives) need to link the performance of our education system to the interests of our governmental, industrial and commercial entities. If a failing education system penalizes the interests of the powerful then like the hangman's noose, it will focus the mind's attention quite effectively on making sure that we succeed.