COMMENTARY | The Associated Press reports that almost half of all U.S. public schools failed to meet federal performance standards this year under the controversial No Child Left Behind (NCLB) protocols.
According to the article:
"Republicans in Congress say Duncan and President Barack Obama are using the waivers to push a 'backdoor education agenda' that will ultimately let schools off the hook.
" 'The law needs to be fixed and it needs to be fixed in Congress and not by executive action,' House education committee Chairman John Kline, a Republican from Minnesota, said in September after Obama announced the waivers.
"Under No Child Left Behind, states that have tough standards are punished and schools that make progress but don't hit benchmarks get treated the same as schools that see performance dip, Jennings said."
The House education committee has many members.
The chairman, Representative John Kline of Minnesota, has never been a professional educator.
Committee members include Howard McKeon (California), Thomas Petri (Wisconsin), Judy Biggert (Illinois), Todd Platts (Pennsylvania), Joe Wilson (South Carolina), Virginia Foxx (North Carolina), Bob Goodlatte (Virginia), Duncan Hunter (California), Phil Roe (Tennessee), Glenn Thompson (Pennsylvania), Tim Walberg (Michigan), Scott DesJarlais (Tennessee), Richard Hanna (New York), Todd Rokita (Indiana), Larry Bucshon (Indiana), Trey Gowdy (South Carolina), Lou Barletta (Pennsylvania), Kristi Noem (South Dakota), Martha Roby (Alabama), Joe Heck (Nevada), Dennis Ross (Florida), and Mike Kelly (Pennsylvania).
Glenn Thompson has an academic background in education but worked in health care, while Virginia Foxx is a former college instructor. Lou Barletta majored in elementary education before leaving school to try out for a Major League baseball team. Several have served on local school boards early in their political careers.
Most have law degrees. None has ever, according to their biographies, worked as certified teachers in a K-12 classroom. Only Virginia Foxx appears to have taught professionally as a full-time educator, but that was at the college level, which is quite different from standard K-12 public school systems.
The other 25 House committees have members and chairpersons with professional experience in those fields of endeavor. The Agriculture Committee, for example, is chaired by Frank Lucas of Oklahoma, who has a degree in Agricultural Economics, while ranking Democrat Collin Peterson of Minnesota grew up on a farm and Republican Kristi Noem of South Dakota was a full-time rancher. The Armed Services Committee has several U.S. military veterans, such as Silvestre Reyes of Texas and Todd Akin of Missouri.
The lack of former teachers in Congress is worrisome, especially when other House committees are populated with more Representatives with professional experiences in those areas. Without former public school teachers in Congress to provide first-hand knowledge of pressing issues and challenges in K-12 education, problems are considerably more difficult to fix.
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