New norm in Obama regime: Graduates who can’t read

The goal of the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act was to have every student proficient in reading and mathematics by 2014. Proposed by George W. Bush shortly after he took office, the bill had bipartisan support in Congress. The Act required states to develop assessments in basic skills for all students in certain grades in order for states to receive federal funding.

State and local education officials have been asking federal government authorities for relief from their own student testing mandates because more and more schools have been labeled failures due to less and less students passing the reading standards during each spring testing. ”Critics say the goals are unrealistic and brand schools as failures even if they make progress.” Schools are closed and teachers are fired because of these “unrealistic reading testing goals.” Really? Being able to read and interpret simple paragraphs in English is unrealistic? Could it be because progressive teachers are more interested in lumping American kids with illegal alien students in ESL Science class?

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Why do we teach Science to American students in an ESL class? How much money is that costing the U.S. taxpayers? The Obama administration is coming to the rescue by exempting schools from the federal law’s testing mandate. Problem solved, let us dumb down American education even further and give the “poor overworked” teachers and students a waiver. Let us fix the lowest performing schools by lowering the standards even more. Arne Duncan, the Education Secretary, announced on August 8, 2011 a waiver to all 50 states with more details coming out in September. “Nothing in this plan for temporary relief from some aspects of the federal law will undermine what Congress is still discussing in terms of revising federal education laws,” said Duncan. The temporary relief is the federal funding that schools need to operate in the current school year in order to graduate more students who cannot read well or pass basic standards, as they should, in accordance with the No Child Left Behind Act. “Duncan has warned that 82 percent of U.S. schools could be labeled failures next year if No Child Left Behind is not changed.” Apparently, schools are not afraid to meet the standards but need more time and the freedom to institute change at their own pace. Principals claim that they need more flexibility and time. Just how long does a student need to learn to read English and to do basic math? Are thirteen years not enough time? Montana Schools Superintendent Denise Juneau said, “her state isn’t afraid of high standards and education reform but needs enough time to reach those standards and freedom to institute change in a way that works for Montana.” Could it be that schools and teachers spend too much time on alternative learning methodology, too many ESL classes, bilingual curriculum, multicultural curriculum, unnecessary electives, environmental literacy curriculum, revisionist history, and non-academic topics? Many elementary schools pay Spanish translators $25 per hour after school to teach illegal immigrants’ children how to do basic math and reading skills. These children speak Spanish only in their homes. When they test with English speaking students, their poor scores bring down the overall scores for that class and the school in general. Billions of dollars are spent annually on bilingual and multicultural programs at the expense of reading and basic mathematics. Nobody knows for sure the exact amount since it is not just the Department of Education that engages in such practices. Representative Virginia Foxx (R-NC) introduced H.R. 1715, the Multilingual Services Accounting Act. This bill requires “the Department of Education and every government agency to create a new section in their annual accountability report that details any cost associated with providing multilingual services, such as verbal, written, or other services in languages other than English.” H.R. 1715 defines “fees paid for translators for non-English speakers, the cost for private contractors’ employees to learn languages other than English, the cost of preparing, translating, printing, or recording of documents, records, Web sites, brochures, pamphlets, flyers, or other materials in a language other than English.” H.R. 1715 is self-executing. When the bill is passed, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget would have six months to inform every government agency CFO to provide all of the multilingual services accounting information required under section 902(a)(6)(E) of H.R. 1715. This bill will provide a beginning to the accountability that schools and other government agencies owe to the American people. The hard-working taxpayers need to know how their money is being wasted on a dumbed-down, multicultural education that appeases political correctness.