Was NCLB a farce?

In the words of the great political philosopher Cenk Uygur, "Of Course!"

NCLB was never about educating children, it was about siphoning public funds away from public schools and putting it in private hands.

If American schools would teach fewer concepts in each subject, and teach them well, our standards would be higher. When you compair our Math curriculum, with say Japan, we teach twice as many concepts in a year as they do, and with a shorter school year, and shorter school days. End result, our kids know a little of this, and some of that, but not anything really well. So it's off to summer school, and then pass on to the next grade, where it starts all over again. This will go on, and on, because it's the American education way to do things. We all know it's broken, but what can you do about it? Nothing!

Our 6 y/o son whom is in 1st grade reads at the 4th grade level. Why you might ask, its because we sit down with him and push him to work hard. When we met his teacher and were told the requirements for his grade level I almost puked...what a joke, counting to twenty, ABC's, and some minor reading.

Our son wants to become a paleontologist so he has pushed himself to read about all kinds of animals, plants, and other interesting creatures. But here it Texas, required reading is the bible, NRA pamphlets, and the alaphabet. No wonder some people just walk away rather than debate with others, they have no skills in debate and confuse a common issues with personal bias.

You know not all schools are created equal when the first thing a couple with children moving to a new area does is find out where the best schools are and then moves to that district. You know as a substitute teacher and as a parent that not all tests are equal when one school's children have a better grasp of reading comprehension and math skills along with science skills just from comparing notes with other parents, visiting the school (or working there as a substitute). NCLB did nothing for our school standards – the disparity between schools just continues to grow. Our country's population is becoming dumber and not smarter – we need to turn this around or we are going to be the ex-Great United States not only intellectually but socially, financially, and technologically.