When I was on the school board in Fairbanks in the long ago ‘90’s- the conservatives were ALWAYS harping about “LOCAL CONTROL.” Yes indeedy. I still remember my fellow board members waving their Phyliss Schaffley newsletter and shouting “We ain’t takin none of that stinkin’ federal money!!!” Must have been during the (Clinton admin, huh?) Then Bush got elected and passed “No Child Left Behind” a virtual Federalized education system, and the conservatives were all of a sudden all for it?#%^&
GO FIGURE I said to myself.
I’ve been waiting and waiting for the conservatives to bail, which I figured would happen as soon as THEIR CONSTITUENT’S dumb white TV watching juvenile delinquents were the ones who flunked the tests and were threatened with not graduating.
And VOILA! Here’s Arizona stepping up the plate!
See, the real reason they got on this bandwagon was that “Standards” were supposed to be the proof of their often vocalized wishful thinking that when it comes to improving education, “its not about money.” Raise your hand if you remember that one.
So, instead of building more schools, buying computers, and hiring more teachers and paying them a living wage, each state got together all their teachers and parents and created these so-called “Standards.” Then they had to create yet more high stakes tests to see if they could teach to their new standards, but that still wasn’t good enough. NO child left behind made them cow-tow to even more standards for the standards…….
OF course, if you read the article, good old Guv Janet was trying to play the hand she was dealt, about to ask for more money for education to meet the standards, and if there is one thing the ARiz legislature does not want to do, its give money to education.
Maybe it was about money after all…..