Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders was one of the few members of the U.S. Senate to vote against No Child Left Behind when it was approved by Congress in 2001.
Today is the anniversary of the signing of that law.
In this article in USA Today, Sanders calls for an end to the NCLB mandate, which remained in place through Race to the Top and the Every Students Succeeds Act of 2015 (Every student succeeds is another way of saying “no child left behind.”)
He writes:
Wednesday marks 18 years since the signing into law of No Child Left Behind, one of the worst pieces of legislation in our nation’s history. In December 2001, I voted against NCLB because it was as clear to me then, as it is now, that so-called school choice and high-stakes standardized testing would not improve our schools or enhance our children’s ability to learn. We do not need an education system in which kids are simply taught to take tests. We need a system in which kids learn and grow in a holistic manner.
Under NCLB, standardized tests were utilized to hold public schools and teachers “accountable” for student outcomes. As a result, some schools that underperformed were closed and their teachers and unions blamed.
The long-term effects of this approach have been disastrous. NCLB perpetuated the myth of public schools and teachers as failing, which opened the door for the spread of school voucher programs and charter schools that we have today. Some of these charter schools are operated by for-profits; many of them are nonunion and are not publicly accountable.
One error here: 90% of charters are non-union, not “many.” That is why charters have the enthusiastic support of right-wingers like the Waltons, DeVos, Koch, and other billionaires (see Slaying Goliath for a comprehensive list of the billionaires, foundations, and corporations that support testing and charters)
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Bernie gets it. He has no history of really bad choices to defend, b/c he voted against Iraq War in 03 as well as NCLB in 02, unlike Biden. Track records confer credibility on candidates. Still waiting for the Dem Party to acknowledge its dreadful errors in NCLB/ESSA and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Don’t hold your breath, Ira!
A moderator at the Education Forum treated Sanders’ vote against NCLB as if it was a mark against him. It’s a badge of honor. Very glad Bernie has progressed on the views he espoused in 2016.
The moderators at the Public Education Forum had the “reformer 2010” mindset.
Hurrah, hurrah, Bernie hits another home run! If we were a sane nation, Bernie would have been elected president in 2016. He gets my votes (primary and general elections (hopefully)). Of course they just keep screaming socialist, commie, commie, commie and claim that Bernie is a millionaire who owns 3 homes, blah, blah. Well, he did make money with his book and one of those homes was an inheritance from his wife’s family. Much ado about nothing. Congress is full of multimillionaires who dwarf Bernie’s assets by a huge margin. He’s one of the most honest politicians and he does not take corporate money. The oligarchs will be working overtime to undermine and sabotage Bernie’s campaign run.
Bernie is an independent, deep thinker. He knows how to weigh and measure, and he understands consequences. It took him some time to get up to speed in education, but he now understands public education’s relationship to democracy and building a more equitable future for our young people. Testing, punishment, privatization and blaming teachers do not yield better results. Bernie understands that education requires investment.
Go, Bernie, Go!
This is what happens when people organize and agitate relentlessly. Eventually a politician emerges who listens and responds.
If our unions wished to show real leadership, they would be taking people to the streets to end the federal testing mandate. That they haven’t is both ignorant and cowardly. And it’s complicity in child abuse. It’s time.
Deformers/Disrupters love to hate and blame the unions. Well, I say, “Let’s give them something to talk about.”
RANDI WEINGARTEN IS AMONG THE WORST. But we should take whatever support we can get out of her.
She has done some really great work this past year. I dream that she will come around about the Common Bore and get serious about opposition to standardized testing. It’s long past time to show some moral leadership about this.
The real question is whether she will endorse her own choice for a candidate again without a vote of the union membership.
I wonder about that, too, Bob. Would it be so difficult to organize a national street demonstration in the spring?
This is how the national testing mandate finally ends. If only. . . .
Feelin’ the Bern!!!
Seventeen years of failed and failing policy as of today. Seventeen years. That’s nearly a whole generation of waste and abusive destructiveness. So much lost. Nothing gained. Electing Bernie this year is our country’s chance to end the insanity. The ESSA is coming up for renewal soon. It’s now or forever. May 2020 be the Year of the Bern.
I sent this article with my personalized comment to Senator Niemeyer [R-IN] and Representative Chyung [D-IN]. Chyung is a liberal who understands a lot but he is up against a politically RED dominated state. Niemeyer….no further comment on him.
These are state people who meet in Indianapolis.
may MANY, MANY people latch onto this particular missive from Sanders and send it out widely and repeatedly
An interesting thing to see: a political leader trying to get votes this way. Sure is a lot different from Bob Dole talking bad about the teacher’s union in his 1996 acceptance speech at the republican convention. Sure is different from the NCLB stuff. Sure is different from the Race to the Top under Obama/Duncan. Sure does not look like the fire the teacher movement.
Is this a watershed moment? A change?
It’s a watershed that has been dammed (and damned) by the DNC, who will do their damdest (and damndest) to ensure that he does not get the nomination.
excellent look at truth: both damned and dammed by the DNC
FINALLY!!!!!!!!
Thank you, Bernie.
Visionary.
Oh good grief. This is the best this state can come up with? How about spending time eliminating standardized testing? Notice it is always Democrats who have some common sense.
………………………………………
[NWI Times] ‘In God We Trust’ required on school walls in Indiana?
The phrase “In God We Trust” soon could be emblazoned on the wall of every Indiana school classroom under legislation being considered at the Statehouse by the Senate Education Committee.
Senate Bill 131 would mandate all public and charter schools display a “durable poster or framed picture” in each classroom and library with the words “In God We Trust” printed at least 4 inches tall and 15 inches wide, along with similar-sized representations of the United States and Indiana flags.
Under the plan, schools would be responsible for the cost of printing, framing and installing the phrase and image in every classroom by July 1, unless the posters themselves are donated or schools are provided donated funds to cover the expense…
In response, state Sen. Mark Stoops, D-Bloomington, said it’s one thing for the federal government to put “In God We Trust” on money, it’s quite another to stick it in the face of Hoosier schoolchildren, many of whom may not believe in God or may practice a religion with multiple gods.
“For children of different faith backgrounds this will make school seem like a less welcoming place,” Stoops said…
https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/in-god-we-trust-required-on-school-walls-in-indiana/article_8146c951-041e-5b85-8727-dd08ff46939e.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=user-share
Just in case you didn’t read the article…..
That’s not good enough for Eric Miller, executive director of the “pro-family and pro-church” Advance America, who said “In God We Trust” needs to be displayed in Indiana classrooms to combat what he sees as “a hostility toward religion” in America.
Indianapolis is the site of the Reform Leaders Summit in June 2021.
It’s “recommended by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops”.
The Summit is part of a program that includes seminars facilitated by policy makers, education entrepreneurs, funders, etc, It’s under the auspices of the University of Notre Dame ACE. The site states, “The entire Catholic community should be encouraged to advocate for parental school choice…” The preferred funding method of the Summit reformers is tax credits, similar to the Koch network and CAP. The method defunds government while facilitating privatization.
For you, Carol, the big issue is a placard in classrooms?
For me, it is a tax funded classroom of the authoritarian religions that can have all of the God-Jesus bric-a-brac and indoctrination it wants.
Linda; “For you, Carol, the big issue is a placard in classrooms?
For me, it is a tax funded classroom of the authoritarian religions that can have all of the God-Jesus bric-a-brac and indoctrination it wants.”
Small steps count because they add up one small bit at a time. Putting a poster that says, “In God We Trust” is ‘combating hostility towards CHRISTIAN religions’ according to Eric Miller, executive director of the “pro-family and pro-church” .
Our tax money is being wasted in many ways. Funding authoritarian religions is not something I approve of.
“Small steps count ”
Exactly. We got to Trump from Roosewelt is small steps. War as a method of suppressing is out, small economic and political steps is in.
About a different religion bill focused on public schools in Indiana (2018, Daily Herald)- “The proposal is backed by social conservative groups, including the Indiana Liberty Coalition, Advance America, and the Indiana Catholic Conference.”
Carole, is it odd that you limit your reporting to evangelical political activities?
BTW- Both Jerry Falwell and the Virginia Catholic Conference oppose the ERA.
Linda: I answer to the news that I get. I’m sure that more is happening but I don’t have access to more.
I was raised a Catholic but haven’t been to more than two masses in over 20 years. [A Catholic friend asked me to attend mass with her.] That should give you some indication of where I stand.
Carol
Public education supporters, women who claim to want equal rights and journalists appear to be “standing” with heads in the sand while the allied Catholic and evangelical political machine achieves its successes.
Well, you know what will happen. Kids will write on them, “Which one?” and other witticisms.
In God We Trust?
God has been cheating
And shouldn’t be trusted
Her love is just fleeting
I caught her, she’s busted!
Yes. Like that.
You put up signs like that only if you don’t trust God.
In God We Don’t trust
If God were really trusted
Then money would be moot
Cuz cheaters would be busted
For making off with loot
But God is just a bust
A statue in a bank
And words “In God we Trust”
On dollars are a blank
“it’s quite another to stick it in the face of Hoosier schoolchildren, many of whom may not believe in God or may practice a religion with multiple gods.”
Or they might have lost their trust in God.
Máté Wierdl: “Or they might have lost their trust in God.”
I’m sure that looking at a sign will have a tremendous effect. Muslims, Hindus, fallen away Catholics, atheists, etc. will see that sign and totally change their outlook. Those who are struggling to survive homeless on the streets will once again know that sometime they will get a home. Those with no healthcare will know that they will sometime have insurance for their parents. Those who have parents with no jobs will start believing because they now know their parents will some day have a job. All it takes is a sign up on the school wall.
Beliefs come from within the home, not on the wall of a school. Kids believe, mostly, what their parents tell them. It is fake junk to believe that all that is needed to make this country a true “Christian” country is more signs on school walls.
Besides, this country is a fake ‘Christian’ country. How many are demanding better social services, gun control, healthcare, decent minimum wages, homes for the homeless, etc. that people desperately need? Why do so many support the Orange IDIOT who knows nothing about religion except to spout how religious he is.
What a pile of BS.
To tell you the truth, I despise any kind of slogan displayed in schools. All have the intention to brainwash kids, and it’s immaterial if I like the particular slogan’s message or not.
Well if I was in Indiana teaching, I’d be taking the sign down and throwing it away. Then the adminimals would put another one back up and I’d throw it away. After a few times of that I’d be called on the carpet and given a letter of reprimand. And then I’d cover up the next one, having been told by the ol so smart adminimals that if I took another one down they’d write a letter of insubordination. And so it would go on, more letters, me putting up signs like “In Satan we trust” or “In FSM we trust”.
Yes, I’ve been through the adminimal wringer more than once.
I think the officials would allow you to put up a sign that said “In Trump We Trust.”
Duane E Swacker: I’ve been stomped on by adminimals more than I’d care to admit. I was always afraid of loosing my job so I quietly took all sorts of garbage and then kicked myself later.
From FDR’s Madison Square Garden speech on the eve of the 1936 election: “We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob. Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me—and I welcome their hatred.”
Go Bernie
“We need a system in which kids learn and grow in a holistic manner.”
You’ve got to love this man.
The wrecking of public schools that poor students attend never ends. Why don’t charter advocates, who allow the purchase of an empty public school for $1, look into the fact that charters don’t perform any better? This is a sleaze move to keep politicians from addressing the effects of poverty. Much easier to support charters and vouchers than do anything that has meaning. This comes from a paper in South Bend, Indiana.
………………………….
[SouthBendTribune.com] Charter school opponents plan Saturday forum on South Bend schools possible charter partnership
Jan 8, 2020
…“What would we do if we lost public education?” Wolfson asked. “We are concerned for the future of our students, the corporation and west side.”
During its Dec. 16 meeting, the South Bend school board approved a resolution authorizing Superintendent Todd Cummings to begin negotiating a contract with the charter school.
Purdue Polytechnic, a charter network founded by Purdue University with a focus in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), is expected to open its South Bend high school in fall 2020. An “innovation” partnership with South Bend schools would call for the charter school to be located inside Washington High School.
Although the partnership has not been voted on by the school board yet, its potential creation has drawn some opposition from community advocates.
The collaboration with Purdue Polytechnic isn’t the only potential partnership with a charter school South Bend school leaders are looking into.
Cummings has met with Career Academy South Bend to discuss partnering with the growing charter school. Those conversations started in October after Career Academy announced its intentions to potentially lease or buy — for $1 — South Bend’s Brown Intermediate Center and the former Eggleston schools, which were shuttered two years ago because of enrollment declines…
https://www.southbendtribune.com/news/education/charter-school-opponents-plan-saturday-forum-on-south-bend-schools/article_db492dd6-30ba-11ea-b559-6f3aa1ecfdb9.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=user-share
It is truly maddening how misguided our education policy is. I understand your frustration.
Right on Bernie! This is the truth, and certainly enough to get my vote.
Bernie supports the Equal Rights Amendment. My vote will be for Bernie.
Predictably, the Virginia Catholic Conference demands, a vote of “NO” on ERA and, the Trump Justice Dept. headed by Catholic, William Barr, steers the efforts against the ERA.
Ed deformers who jeopardize the livelihoods of current and retired teachers (mostly female) rely on the influence of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and state Catholic Conferences for support. What a surprise.
Also not a surprise- the factions of the authoritarian churches that have political clout think women are inferior. They have every reason to believe it. The women continue to bring their daughters and sons to the patriarchy that assures laws that harm women are passed and laws that give all Americans the rights of a democracy aren’t passed.
The Catholic and evangelical churches install Trump, and Bernie, the man who is most aligned with WWJD, loses among the Christians.
it will be truly hard to watch any teachers’ union leadership endorsing other candidates — Sanders’ direct statements about testing argue that any other political endorsement validates a continued abuse
Guess I’m going to have to sign up to be Dimocrap just so I can vote for Sanders in the primary here in Missouri.
As an NPE member, I’d like to ask: when will the NPE endorse Bernie?
Please, soon…before Iowa. I really believe it will make a yuuuuge (as Bernie would say) difference in the outcome, on the positive side, of course.
Also–although I hadn’t found this info in any of our papers’ listings for talk show guests tonight (wonder why?!) Bernie will be Stephen Colbert’s (& I hope he’s the only one, as was Larry David last night–& that’s the only way I knew that Bern would be on) The Late Show w/Stephen Colbert on CBS TONIGHT–10:35 CST, 11:35 ET. If you haven’t watched before, Stephen does a pretty long monologue & follow-up, so Bernie might not be on until at least 20 min. into the show, but watch from the beginning–Colbert is pretty hilarious.
I’m sorry–just to make sure–I realize this was posted yesterday, Jan. 8th–but most of the comments (my last included) are today, so, yes Bernie will be on Colbert TONIGHT, Thursday, Jan. 9th.