Interversity.Org

Georgia Hedrick asked me to post this image for her. She says:

Here is a flyer on types of buttons to resist or say: BOYCOTT NCLB. I would guess that only the retired could wear them, and still have a job.

It only costs a person the price of the postage to get them. I listed what I learned the costs would be in the original info on the buttons.

Contact Georgia for more information.

--Eric

The headline on CNN's website the past couple of days:

Bush: NCLB not meant to punish schools, but to help them

Er, I wonder. If punishment was not the intent, why is the law more punitive than supportive?

"It is important for all of us to make it clear that accountability is not a way to punish anybody," Bush told supporters of the law in a meeting at the White House. "It's an essential component to making sure that our system, our education system, frankly is not discriminatory."

The softer side of his agenda? I guess it is, but I'm afraid that's only a testament to the harshness of the rest of his agenda.

Back in school, Bush touts signature education law

Monday, January 9, 2006; Posted: 4:03 p.m. EST (21:03 GMT)

GLEN BURNIE, Maryland (AP) -- Emphasizing the softer side of his agenda, President Bush went back to school Monday, touting rising test scores as proof that his education law is working.

Bush marked the fourth anniversary of the No Child Left Behind Act by visiting North Glen Elementary, a suburban Baltimore school that has made big gains in reading and math. It was a reminder of a major bipartisan success that Bush scored early in his White House tenure, far from the wrangling over war, domestic spying and other matters overshadowing his second term.

Toe the line, education chief warns the agency she once headed
By JUSTIN GEST
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - Education Secretary Margaret Spellings fined Texas $444,282 Friday for the state's continued defiance of the No Child Left Behind Act.

For the last two years, the Texas Education Agency has exceeded the federal cap on how many students with learning disabilities can be exempted from regular state testing, mandated by the act, in favor of an easier exam.

In a stern letter addressed to Texas Education Commissioner Shirley Neeley, Spellings said "the TEA has not shown cause why" she should not withhold the money from the agency's 2004 federal grant.

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS and published by The New York Times
Published: April 20, 2005 Filed at 3:12 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The nation's largest teachers union and school districts in three states sued the Bush administration Wednesday over the No Child Left Behind law, aiming to free schools from complying with any part not paid for by the federal government.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for eastern Michigan, is the first major challenge to President Bush's signature education policy. The outcome would apply directly to the districts in the case, but it could affect how the law is enforced in schools across the country.

Wednesday, April 6, 2005 Posted: 11:04 AM EDT (1504 GMT) at CNN

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A fundamental change in how the Education Department enforces the No Child Left Behind law could affect the education of millions of students as states seek federal approval on everything from teacher quality to the measuring of student progress.

For example, the department plans to give certain states more freedom in how they test hundreds of thousands of children with milder disabilities, Bush administration officials told The Associated Press on Tuesday. Only states that can prove progress or a strong commitment to improve will be seriously considered for that flexibility, the officials said.

By SUSAN SAULNY
Published: April 4, 2005 in The New York Times

Propelled by the No Child Left Behind law, the federally financed tutoring industry has doubled in size in each of the last two years, with the potential to become a $2 billion-a-year enterprise, market analysts say.

Tutors are paid as much as $1,997 per child, and companies eager to get a piece of the lucrative business have offered parents computers and gift certificates as inducements to sign up, provided tutors that in some cases are still in high school and have made promises they cannot deliver.

Wednesday, March 23, 2005 Posted: 10:28 AM EST (1528 GMT) at CNN

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The No Child Left Behind education law is helping more needy students, but its success is in jeopardy unless states and schools get more support themselves, a review finds.

States are redoubling efforts to help low-achieving students, match up school courses to state standards and use test data to figure out the weaknesses of struggling children, according to the most comprehensive review yet of the 2002 law, a cornerstone of President Bush's education policy.

But states and school districts say they don't have the money or staffing to improve the thousands of schools that have failed to meet progress goals and face federal penalties.

• Intellectual Freedom
• NCLB

By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of state legislators wants the Bush administration and Congress to give states sweeping new control over how they rate schools, teachers and students under President Bush's No Child Left Behind education law, saying the law as it stands is a "rigid and inaccurate yardstick" of success.

In a report issued Wednesday, the National Conference of State Legislatures says the law sets unrealistic expectations and defies common-sense notions of how to rate schools.

The report comes as legislatures in several states consider laws limiting the federal government's role in schools.