Bush Uses Smear & Fear Tactics to Push Education Agenda

"Are states 'dumbing down' student achievement tests?" asks Robert Longley, About.com's Guide to Gov't Info.

Robert reports today that President Bush's Education Secretary and longtime crony, Margaret Spellings, "released a report which... MAY indicate that some states are reducing the difficulty of their standardized student proficiency tests" mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act.

The release of the report comes precisely when NCLB, a centerpiece of the Bush agenda, is under review by Congress for reauthorization. NCLB is a 5-year program which expires in 2007.

Coincidence? Of course not. It's exquisitely-timed, trademark Bush manipulation as usual.

The Complicated Truth Obscured by the White House
But is it true? Are some states "dumbing down" required standardized tests?

Because of Bush administraton funding machinations and the convoluted problems caused by NCLB, YES, some states sadly, and properly, have taken to diluting standardized tests. It's their best choice among bad, Bush-designed options.

In a nutshell, here are the viewpoints of the Bush Education Department and of the states:

The Education Department under Sec. Margaret Spellings
Simplistically claims that rather than doing the hard work of raising education levels for all children, states lower the proverbial bar by "dumbing down" test standards.

This broadbrush claim is wholly misleading, for reasons firmly stated by almost every teachers' union in the United States. (For quick-reading details, see Pros & Cons of the No Child Left Behind Act.) In summary:

States, Local School Districts and Most Teachers Unions
NCLB is so convoluted and overly complex; so slanted by Bush political ideologies; so riddled with profitable favors for Bush cronies; and especially, so cruelly unrealistic for many children with disabilities, who don't speak English well, and/or who hail from poverty-level homes... that some states feel forced to lower test requirements to accommodate a few students, in order to maintain federal funding for all students.

The Bush "Burger King" Administration: Having It Their Way
Like always, the Bush administration views this issue only in black and white. Their agenda is correct. All other ways, viewpoints and thoughts are wrong. Reality is that the truth about No Child Left Behind exists in shades and nuances of gray.

Once again, the Bushies take a tiny kernel of possible truth, splash it across headlines, smear whoever is standing in their way (this time, states, school administrators, teachers), and manipulate mercilessly and shamelessly.

I call the Bush 2 White House years the Burger King Administration, in which it's all and only about having it their way.

This brilliantly-cued new Education Department report is nothing more than another Bush-style smear-and-fear tactic designed to have it his way... and to avoid a serious national conversation about the No Child Left Behind Act.

Related Reading
Pros & Cons of the No Child Left Behind Act
Reform, Rewrite or Junk the No Child Left Behind Act?
Sadly, Republicans Aim to Kill, Not Fix, No Child Left Behind