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| Date: | August 8, 2011 | | Contact Name: | Susan Closmore | | Contact Phone: | 651-296-5712 | | Contact Email: | susan.closmore@senate.mn | | For Immediate Release | |
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| Governor to Ask for Opt Out of No Child Left Behind One More Example of the Failure of Big Government |
Lakeville– State Senator Dave Thompson (R-Lakeville) issued the following statement regarding Governor Mark Dayton’s decision to request a temporary waiver from No Child Left Behind (NCLB) requirements.
The Star Tribune is reporting that Governor Mark Dayton has agreed to ask the Obama Administration for a temporary waiver of certain NCLB testing requirements. The Governor will make this move in response to the request of Education Commissioner Brenda Cassellius.
Senator Thompson said, “I am glad to see that Governor Dayton recognizes the inherent problems with this onerous federal takeover of education policy. The failure of NCLB is yet another illustration of the ineffectiveness of big government solutions to problems that are best handled by individuals or local governments.
President George W. Bush’s NCLB program has been a total disaster. Now, federal testing requirements tend to dictate content, teaching methods, and allocation of class time. There seems to be almost no correlation between NCLB testing outcomes and actual school performance. Teachers and local educators, not politicians and bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., should determine curricula, academic standards, and testing requirements. It is time to jettison NCLB and get the federal government out of the education business all together.”
