Friday, April 13, 2007

In Principle, I Agree With Everything The Bush Administration Has Done

Scott McLeod sez:

I have yet to meet someone that is against the core premise of NCLB: that existing achievement gaps need to be closed and that schools should, and could, do much more when it comes to the academic achievement of traditionally-underserved student groups. In other words, everyone seems to agree that ‘no child should be left behind.’ The discontent instead stems from the way that NCLB has been implemented.

Following this reasoning, I'd also agree with the "core premise" of everything the Bush administration has done.

I'm in favor of better Medicare policy, I just disagree with the implementation. I'm in favor of peace and democracy in the Middle East, I just disagree with the implementation. I'm in favor of the principle of executive privilege, I just don't like it when the White House deletes 5 million emails. I'm in favor of federal funding for stem cell research, I just don't agree with the implementation. Etc., etc., ad nauseum.

2 comments:

Miguel Guhlin (@mGuhlin) said...

I agree wholeheartedly with you on this one, Tom.

Scott McLeod said...

The point of my post wasn't that there's much to criticize about the federal implementation of NCLB. There is. The point of my post was that state departments, school districts, administrators and teachers also share much of the blame for what we criticize regarding the law. We cannot pin this all on the feds. We also are to blame.