Who’s in the Obama administration?

When I give criticism to the Obama administration about their NCLB policy I don’t want readers to get discouraged by the enormity of brining attention to them.

The administration has different cabinet positions to focus on the administrative side of policy issues. All of them come from the good ol' boys clubs like Harvard, Yale, and Columbia. The education secretary, a cabinet member in the Obama administration named Arne Duncan is just another one of those members.

Arne Duncan like Obama comes from Chicago. He spent most of his life after Harvard working as superintendents of inner-city schools. He has no experience with rural education, no one in the cabinet does.

Duncan went to prep schools before attending Harvard. Like many in the administration, they are experts because of their preparatory education. Duncan got in with a basketball scholarship, maybe that’s how he expects all the rural students to get in to college. When rural students get into college they’re not even prepared to pass most of their general education courses.

The only way Duncan is going to know about how to fix rural education is through awareness.

Before we bring attention to Duncan, I want the readership to be more knowledgeable on the topic.

The No Child left behinds affect on rural schools

The No Child Left behind Act (NCLB) is the nation’s federal education bill. The new Obama administration is concerned about NCLB and wants to make changes to the plan in order to help suffering inner-city school.

I’m not saying that inner cities schools do not have their problems. I just want an administration from Chicago to understand rural areas.

Those who followed the Presidential election of Barack Obama may remember his comments about men and women from rural Ohio, and how they cling to their guns and their religion. NCLB with funding may be able to work in inner cities.

However, standardized tests scores is the only piece of education rural schools care about, because the scores determine the amount of
This creates numerous problems that should be addressed by new legislation. Here are the main problem readers and the Obama administration need to be aware of.

1. Students who will pass the standardized test receive little to no attention in classrooms

2. In rural high schools, AP and IB programs do not receive attention, many students in AP and IB programs in rural schools fail the exams.

3. Students do not learn what is needed for college instead their curriculum is set to standardized testing, which is completely different.

Who is left behind?

“Can I have your attention please, can I have your attention please; students, staff, and visitors will you please stand for the pledge of allegiance.”

That is how every day starts at David Wolfle Elementary in Kingston, Washington, a town of less then 1,600 people. At the time I lived in Kingston the population was more like 800.

My name is Aaron Davidson, and I attended Wolfle Elementary for seven years. Every year in class I was know as an “overachiever”. I received top marks in every subject.

In school you probably remember the overachiever. They probably went to top colleges or started working at a successful company. I realized this would not be the case for me when I left the school district before my first year of high school.

The principle told me that I was two years behind in almost every aspect of schooling, and I started crying. There was no Harvard for me; there never will be.

I wish I could say that I was the exception, but there is no Harvard for every student at Wolfle. There are many children with limitless potential at failing rural schools, and nothing is being done.

Much of the damage inflicted by the federal government comes in the form of broad educational funding programs such as the No Child Left Behind Act, or NCLB. NCLB is the main cause of failing rural schools, and need to be eliminated as a piece of legislation.

Some readers may say, “How does this affect me”. The truth is, it doesn’t affect you. I’m sorry to say that it’s not about you in this situation. Instead it is about children who wake up everyday, and no matter how hard they try, they will not be the “American success story.”