I was interested to read today of Senator Obama’s speech about reforming the fire-breathing dragon educators call the NCLB (No Child Left Behind) act. Obama’s solution is to throw one billion big ones at the problem. In his proposal, this extra money would:

Double the federal cash given to charter schools

Provide $500 million for technology in matching funds

Design merit-pay based plans for teachers

Create an ‘innovative schools fund’ which would provide aid to school districts to allow them to close low performing schools and raise the number of successful ones

Obama praised the intentions of NCLB but criticized its execution in the Bush years. Many teachers (including this one) agree that the federal government attached lots of cumbersome, flaming strings to this legislation that put many districts under rules that they cannot afford to implement.

I find it curious, though, that Obama’s speech told us nothing about how those billion dollars would actually be used to improve education. Apparently in Obama’s mind, it’s all about the money.

And that’s where he is wrong. We will not slay the dragon of educational inequality by quenching its flames with money. More money without real change will just result in more expensive problems.

In his speech, Obama criticized Senator McCain’s record on schools and said that if McCain is elected, he will take money away from schools.

You don’t reform our schools by opposing efforts to fully fund No Child Left Behind. And you certainly don’t reform our education system by calling to close the Department of Education,” he said.

On the contrary, shutting down the Department of Education would be a huge step in the right direction! For a candidate who is supposed to be all about change, he certainly likes to keep things the way they are. Our top heavy government needs a thorough examination — there are many departments that could be merged or eliminated all together. The Department of Education is certainly not above any examination on its effectiveness. If it doesn’t do the job it’s supposed to do (help the STATES), then cut it and give its duties and necessary funding to the states and local people who are actually out there in the trenches. Change, by its very nature, is messy and uncomfortable, but in today’s America with over a $400 billion dollar deficit, it’s necessary.

One look at the Republican Party’s platform will show you some specific ideas McCain and Palin have on improving education in this country:

• Belief that education is a parental right, a state and local responsibility, and a national strategic interest.
• Accountability for student achievement
• Transparency so parents and the general public know which schools best serve their students
• Flexibility and freedom to innovate so schools can best meet the needs of their students
• Building on the basics, especially phonics
• Ending social promotion
• Merit pay for good teachers (Obama agrees!)
• Classroom discipline
• Parental involvement
• Support parental options, including home schooling
• Insist that students be literate in English
• Support family literacy
• Create an adjunct teacher corp of experts to fill in teaching positions
• Private-public partnerships and mentoring
• Background checks of personnel
• Choice in education, whether through charter schools, vouchers, tax credits for those who choose private schools or home schools
• Block-grant funds to the states to allow local educators to end ineffective programs and reallocate resources

A strict constitutionalist would argue that the federal government has no business meddling in education. The Constitution gives the federal government no role. Yet in less than a decade, annual federal funding with flaming strings attached has increased 41%. In order to get those funds, schools and states have had to use about 6.7 million HOURS to fulfill the requirements of those regulatory strings.

If there’s one thing I know about education, it’s about hours and minutes and seconds. Every single minute that a teacher spends one-on-one with a child is a minute that counts. In its over-bearing effort to be all things to all people, the federal government has created a fire breathing monster that eats away at those precious minutes as teachers and administrators scramble to fill out the umpteenth form, in triplicate.

Feeding the dragon a billion more dollars will require a billion more hours, minutes, and seconds of time-wasting regulations…time that could be better spent in a classroom, sitting on a cushion, listening to a child read.

As Governor Sarah Palin said in an October 31, 2006 interview,

It’s not always more money that will lead to more success in schools.”

And again I completely agree with her on this:

Every child, of every ability, is to be cherished and loved and taught. Every child provides this world hope. They are the most beautiful ingredient in our sometimes muddied up world. I am committed to our children and their education. Stepping through “the door” is about more than passing a standardized test. We need kids prepared to pass life’s tests–like getting a job and valuing a strong work ethic.

It is so important as we struggle and debate the issue of civil rights in education that we remember the purpose of our efforts — to prepare kids, as Palin said, to pass life’s tests.