No Child Left Behind

My routine walk to the mailbox today was met with this letter from Mr. Del Burns, the Superintendent of the Wake County Public School System: "Wake County Schools is continuing in Title 1 District Improvement because the school district has missed Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) targets in reading and math in elementary, middle, and high schools for at least two years in a row." Thank you, Mr. Burns for this marvelous piece of information.

Our county can be lauded the nation over for busing kids out of their neighborhoods. Our school board can spend our tax dollars in the name of building new schools so we can buy more buses to haul more students all over the county. We can fill our once-hallowed halls of learning with local law enforcement because there are gangs and fights and disorder in many of our high schools. But, sadly we can't meet standards for reading and math.

"We need someone in Congress who puts education, educators, and children first. We need someone who will stand up for those voiceless interests rather than appealing to a blind allegiance to the White House’s misguided priorities in educational policy. Who better to stand up for education than a lifelong educator like Roy Carter?"
---Tripp Jeffers, President of the Forsyth County Association of Educators and member of the North Carolina Association of Educators Governmental Relations Commission

Last week, I traveled to Washington, DC, along with 16 other advocates for early childhood education from North Carolina. We attended a public policy forum, sponsored by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). “NAEYC's mission is to serve and act on the behalf of the needs, rights, and well-being of all young children with primary focus on the provision of educational and developmental services and resources.”

We spent a day in intensive sessions, learning all we could about specific issues and concerns affecting early childhood at a federal level. What are what are those issues? Find out below the fold.

When Bush & Co said "No Child Left Behind", they meant it, but they weren't necessarily talking about reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic. Did you know that unless you opt out, your teenager's information, including name, address, phone number, will be automatically sent to military recruiters?