Wednesday, January 27, 2010

state of the union

Maybe because I went to a geeky-college, but I do love the night of the State of the Union address. It's probably because of my glorious college memories of the State of the Union parties we'd held (although, most of those involved paying very close attention to particular words like evil-doers and axis of evil). But still, the State of the Union always leaves me a little nostalgic for those days of gathering together to screech in horror at what certain people were wearing, gasp at the president's broad statements, and of course, enjoy college beverages...

As excited as I am for tonight (no drinking games for me however... according to Huffington Post if you follow their drinking game list you may die...) I'm a little nervous. Splatypus mentioned that Obama was expected to heavily focus on education. I got my hopes up for a moment, wondering if he was going to announce abolishing No Child Left Behind. After all, we're getting closer to 2014 and no one has figured out how to make the 100% pass rate statistically possible.
Then I read this from the Wall Street Journal:
Obama will also call for Congress to reauthorize the federal education law, which President George W. Bush revamped with his 2002 No Child Left Behind Act. The administration is expected to propose a range of changes to the Bush law to promote higher standards and to hold schools and teachers more accountable.

Um... reauthorize? Excuse me! Has anyone but politicians argued in favor of NCLB? What the hell? When did the Democrats decide NCLB was a good move? Or, since this is pretty much the one area where Obama is in-line with the Republican message, is he giving the Republicans what they want in education in order to get what he wants elsewhere? Ummmm.... hello, what happened to those great speeches on education Obama gave during the campaign? The ones that made me teary?

And more accountable? Do they not think we're accountable now? Is he going to change how we measure? Or just increase the standards for passing those standardized tests? All my calmness and zen from afternoon yoga class has worn off. I'm stressed. How can I possibly agree with the republican governor of my state on education more than I agree with the president? Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised.

Suddenly the Huffington Post's drinking game doesn't sound so bad...

1 comment:

Vagabond Teacher said...

I'm still trying to figure out what "accountable" means.