"In city after city, across the nation, I have heard similar stories
from teachers and parents. Why are they closing our school? What can we
do about it? How can we stop them? I wish I had better answers. I know
that as long as NCLB stays on the books, there is no stopping the
destruction of local community institutions. And now with the active
support of the Obama administration, the NCLB wrecking ball has become a
means of promoting privatization and community fragmentation.
I have often wondered whether there is any other national legislature
that has passed a law that had the effect of stigmatizing the nation's
public education system. Last year, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan
said that 82 percent of our nation's schools would fail to make
"adequate yearly progress." A few weeks ago, the Center for Education Policy reported that the secretary's estimate was overstated,
and that it was "only" half the nation's schools that would be
considered failing as of this year. Secretary Duncan's judgment may have
been off the mark this year, but NCLB guarantees that the number of
failing schools will grow every year. If the law remains intact, we can
reasonably expect that nearly every public school in the United States
will be labeled as a failing school by 2014."
