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Politics : THE WHITE HOUSE -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MJ who wrote (15182)	1/11/2008 2:31:43 AM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Respond to of 25737

"Iowa was a straw poll and not binding as I think I understand. Is that correct?" Don't think so.... Think that --- technically --- what they did in Iowa is vote for their State electors who will then meet and vote for their national electors. (Supposed to vote for who they pledged to vote for, I believe.) Of course, "faithless electors" could happen there, or any other State for that matter. :-)

To: MJ who wrote (15182)	1/11/2008 2:33:21 AM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 25737

Six Years Later: "No Child Left Behind" A Disaster It's the six-year anniversary of the Bush administration's landmark No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law. So far NCLB has cost tens of billions of dollars and brought record levels of federal involvement in education -- with, predictably, little or nothing worthwhile from it all. The law is facing reauthorization. But many commentators are condemning it as a costly failure -- and unconstitutional, to boot. The law's stated goal is to have 100 percent of kids achieving government- defined "proficiency" in math and writing by 2014. Yes, just six years from now. Yes, 100 percent. Needless to say, there remains a good bit of catching up to do. (This reminds us of the demented 1998 goal of Newt Gingrich and numerous GOP House members of "a drug-free America by 2002," which was also introduced with loud trumpets and straight faces.) Says Neal McCluskey of the libertarian Cato Institute's Center for Educational Freedom: "Six years of No Child Left Behind, and what do we have to show for it? Stagnant reading achievement, slowed math improvements, declining academic performance versus competitor nations, and narrowed curricula, all for the bargain price of about $24 billion per year, or a 40 percent increase over fiscal year 2001. "This pathetic return on our investment, of course, would be shocking were it not for another inconvenient truth: The federal government has been spending billions of dollars on education every year for over four decades, and it's never produced anything but academic stagnation and lighter taxpayer wallets. "Why? Because federal policy is primarily designed to do little more than let politicians show that they 'care,' and let the education establishment and its powerful lobbyists get as much money -- and as little accountability -- as possible. "This year, Washington ought to give the entire country a present to celebrate NCLB's sixth birthday: the law's elimination, and the end of 40-plus years of expensive failure." Cato education expert Andrew Coulson adds: "It's the NCLB's birthday, and you can cry if you want to. And if you have kids in school, or about to enter school, you might want to." "[W]hat do you get for the law that's done nothing? Barely a month ago, two separate sets of international test results were released, allowing us to see how U.S. academic performance has changed since NCLB was enacted. ... The tests were PIRLS (Program on International Reading Literacy Survey) and PISA (Program on International Student Assessment). "Across grades and across subjects, student achievement has either stagnated or declined -- and that's despite the infusion of tens of billions of dollars of new spending in each of the past six years." Mainstream lawmakers outside D.C. acknowledge the unconstitutionality of NCLB, pointing out the Constitution does not authorize federal involvement in education. In 2005, a task force of the bi-partisan National Conference of State Legislatures declared: "The task force does not believe that NCLB is constitutional." But as we know, in the Alice In Wonderland world of DC, failure is rewarded with... more money and more power. Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers are proposing "reforms" for NCLB that would increase federal power and lavish even more money on this failed, doomed, unconstitutional and idiotic boondoggle. (Sources: Cato Institute: cato.org National Conference of State Legislatures: nytimes.com Drug-Free America by 2002: norml.org )