School Rebellion

I have noticed a big trend in schools now is to cut the programs that will hurt children and their parents the most to make a political point. My middle school just cut the Talented and Gifted program (TAG) due to "lack of funds" which I find rather ironic--given that Tennessee started a lottery last year with the promise that some of the proceeds were to be given to the schools--don't know where the money went but apparently not to the TAG program. I suspect if Tennessee implemented an income tax--we would see the same results--more money supposedly raised for education, yet somehow the programs it was meant to implement never would appear and some important ones would continue to disappear.

Recently, more and more physical education classes are being cut by schools who say they cannot keep up with all of the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Just ask any teacher involved with the NCLB act and watch his or her reaction--it's often amusing as most teachers hate the politics behind the Act as much as the Act itself. The protest is also a way to avoid accountability according to some:

"It's been my experience that schools quick to seize on the requirements of NCLB are using the changes as an excuse for why they can't do these things," said Hayes Mizell, a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the National Staff Development Council, an organization dedicated to the professional development of educators. "They're really trying to avoid accountability," he said. Mizell believes schools need to use imagination when faced with reforms.

In a recent book entitled, Education Myths: What Special-Interest Groups Want You to Believe About Our Schools and Why It isn't So, author Jay Greene exposes eighteen widely held myths about education. He states that it is a myth that accountability systems impose large financial burdens on schools. In addition, states that have adopted acountability testing have students that achieve a higher lever of basic skills than in other states. Now, if we could just have schools be accountable for making sure our kids get phys ed.