If 99 percent of public schools in California will fail to meet the academic targets stipulated by the No Child Left Behind program, could the underlying principles of No Child Left Behind be fundamentally flawed?

According to a study referenced in today’s LA Times, a staggering number of schools — 1,200 campuses, or 13 percent of the state’s public schools — may be classified as “failures” by the end of this academic year. By 2013-2014, 99 percent of the state’s schools may be classified as failures.  

No Child Left Behind is one of President Bush’s pet programs, and its aim is to revitalize schools by threatening to punish them with the ousting of principals and teachers and the importation of external managers if the schools fail to achieve designated levels of math and English proficiency. The law, enacted nation-wide two years ago, requires all public schools to have every student to test as proficient in English and math by 2013-2014. President Bush insisted that the status quo in public schools perpetuates the “soft bigotry of low expectations,” and that, through his program, no child would be left behind. But if fully 99 percent of California’s public schools will be failures by 2013-2014, could it be that there is something flawed with the program itself? With the perennial lack of funds and stringent testing requirements, every child, it seems, is being left behind. President Bush may well just be replacing the “soft bigotry of low expectations,” with a belligerent refusal to realistically consider — and thereby improve — the status quo.

Mimi Hanaoka