NAACP and NCLB

["Peter Majoy" <pwmjoy@earthlink.net>]

The rhetoric crusading as concern for underachieving black stuudents shows little, if any, understanding of what the fundamental motive  is behind the Connecticut NAACP's attempt to block the state of Ct.'s suit against the Federal Government for underfunding NCLB. From that venue of trumped up concern, blind sanctimony continues to ironically assert and imply that those who fight against NCLB are racist.

Here's what  one NAACP lawyer has to say: "The issue goes beyond the specifics of No Child Left Behind to potentially affect other federal statutes designed to protect civil rights," said Victor L. Goode, assistant general counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. "One can't help but remember back in the Dixiecrat period when certain Southern states asserted that they were not required to comply with certain federal civil rights laws designed to protect people's rights." (Underlining is mine) http://www.freerepublic. com/focus/f-news/1569478/posts. The centerpiece of concern is that such an attack on NCLB may have a chilling effect on all laws that can be labeled directly or indirectly  as Civil Rights legislation. The NAACP is between a rock and a hard place: it must defend civil rights yet not sanctify NCLB per se, an almost impossible task. 

We get this from the Ct. State Attorney General: "Our action is based on a unique provision in the No Child Left Behind statute that forbids unfunded mandates. It affects no civil rights statute. It creates clear rights that we will enforce vigorously with support from a growing groundswell of school boards, parents, teachers and citizens interested in improving our state's educational system. Indeed, recent school board votes to support our challenge now bring the total number to 117. This support crosses geographical, political and socio-economic boundaries, including our largest cities and smallest towns all across the state." (Underlining is my own) http://www.ct.gov/ag/cwp/view.asp?A=2426&Q=309542 Regardless, the NAACP concern is legitimate but that concern should not be translated as approval of NCLB as an end in itself.

Finally, we get this from the February 10, 2006 press release from  Harvard's Civil Rights Project: "The findings make clear that NCLB must be amended in significant ways, but that the ad hoc approach adopted by the Department of Education is only making matters worse. The authors recommend that policymakers revisit some of the basic assumptions that NCLB is based upon and include educators in the process to develop a systematic approach to revising the law. " http://www.civilrightsproject.harvard.edu/news/ pressreleases/nclb_ unravel.php The "ad hoc" refers to deals being made with various states, a way of denying  the conclusion "that NCLB must be amended in significant ways.."

Therefore, the opposition by CT.'s NAACP  to the State of Ct. suing the Federal Gov't  is not an endorsement of NCLB beyond its lofty and necessary goal. It is, understandably, an effort to protect civil rights. Harvard's Civil Rights Project  defends the central goal of NCLB and, in essence, shares the Ct. NAACP concern for civil rights. What the Civil Rights Project is free to say is "that NCLB must be amended in significant ways" and that all the current wheelings and dealings simply miss that central point. Those who continue to oppose NCLB are on the same side as the NAACP and the Harvard Civil Rights Project.(Underlining is my own)





 


Peter Majoy
pwmjoy@earthlink.net
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