NC reading law needs fix
Published February 3, 2014
Editorial by News and Observer, February 2, 2014.
State Sen. Phil Berger, the chamber’s president pro tem and one of the state’s most powerful politicians, made great show of backing a law to require most third-graders to demonstrate proficiency at reading at grade level before they can go to fourth grade.
If they can’t, they would have to go to reading camps, take more tests and face retention.
The bill, called Read to Achieve, sounded good as a way to reduce social promotion. But it lacked detail, and it added a tremendous testing burden for teachers and school systems. Naturally, it appears there was no consideration of the amount of time it would take, nor was there any additional funding provided to help teachers with the tests.
Republicans such as Berger, after all, have been in the business of cutting funding to public education and bashing teachers and administrators in the process.
So now the State Board of Education will attempt to clean up the mess by coming up with alternatives to the time-consuming 36 short tests the students are facing to make reading improvement more practicable for students and teachers. That’s appropriate.
For his part, Berger says the State Department of Public Instruction, which just happens to be run by an elected Democrat, Dr. June Atkinson, botched the program. She says the legislature should fine-tune the rules, which apparently are confusing local administrators and don’t seem well thought-out.
Berger has blasted public school teachers in the past, a result of the fact that some of them, and an association that represents many teachers, have criticized Republicans’ shameful treatment of public education. So Berger championing of this kind of measure is a little suspect from the beginning.
If he really wants to help, he’ll seek more input from the teachers in the classroom and take the idea back to the drawing board.
February 3, 2014 at 8:06 am
TP Wohlford says:
Forgive me if I'm wrong here...
But didn't the K-12 people get a small increase in budgets?
And seriously, it takes some sort of budget increase to get a kid to read by the time they get thru 3rd grade?
February 3, 2014 at 11:09 am
Norm Kelly says:
With libs it's ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS about the money. They NEVER EVER have enough money to do the job that needs to be done. Regardless of what else happens, what else figures into the equation, there is NEVER enough money for the libs.
Regardless of how much extra money the NCGA under Republican control put in this years education budget, the libs won't be happy and will refer to it as a cut. The libs in education, the libs in the Democrat party, and the libs in the media specifically the N&D.
Wouldn't it be nice to be able to go back and review editorials from the N&D when the libs controlled Raleigh and made ACTUAL cuts to education? I'm sure we could find editorials from those days but who has the time to do it? I'm absolutely positive that the N&D castigated the DemocRATs for making cuts to education, reducing the number of teacher aids in the classroom, reducing the amount available for textbooks. And I'm sure that big education had many, many, large protests against the education cuts from the Demoncrat legislature and governor. I'd also be willing to bet that the buffet slayer, Mr. Barber, was inside the legislative building mounting massive moral protests because of the treatment of minority students by the demons controlling Raleigh.
There are a few facts about libs that can not be denied. First and foremost, they are the most open-minded, fair-minded, equality-minded people anywhere on the planet. Second, they never, ever would consider complaining that some program, any program, didn't have sufficient money in it's budget to get the job done. And reviewing history would simply prove these 2 facts true. The N&D definitely ran editorials supporting the demons in Raleigh, and the moralists led by Barber protested the demons more strongly than they have protested the Republicans. And, add to this that the N&D and Barber used the same truth to protest the demons as they have used the truth to protest the Republicans. Truth is definitely on the side of the libs. Always. We should all simply roll over and let the libs control everything, then everyone in the state would be happy, the budget would be balanced, the money in Raleigh would be spent wisely, jobs would increase, health care would be taken care of, and taxes would be lowered. Utopia could be achieved if we'd only get out of the way of libs and let them do everything their way. Just ask them, they'll tell you this is true. The state lottery solved all the education problems. Just ask Mike.
February 4, 2014 at 8:53 am
TP Wohlford says:
Norm -- I keep asking the educators for "a number". You know, "a number" of how much money will be "enough". I get dumbfounded smirks in response.
