No Child Left Behind Hurts Kids, Teachers, Education

T.M. Lindsey has an interesting story about our education system over at Iowa Independent about an event with Jonathon Kozol, an award winning author. Kozol had some truthful comments about the No Child Left Behind act...

Jonathan Kozol's contributions to public education and role in exposing the educational inequities between the rich and poor have left big footprints in our nation's public education narrative. Kozol, a 71-year-old Boston native, addressed a room full of educators, administrators and prospective educators at the Marriott Hotel in Coralville Tuesday. The event, co-sponsored by Prairie Lights Bookstore and The Iowa City Public School, was billed as a reading of Kozol's new book, "Letters to a New Young Teacher," but the real elephant in the room, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), could not be ignored.

"I have a theory about No Child Left Behind," Kozol told more than 400 people who gathered to hear his reading. "I believe the right wing's agenda underlying No Child Left Behind is not to help students on the bottom end of the spectrum, but to serve as more of a shaming ritual in the public spectrum to soften the ground for vouchers."