Former U.S. Rep. Anne Northup’s Reading First (part of No Child Left Behind) initiative turned out to be a massive failure. A failure to the tune of something like $6 billion.
A study released last month by the National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance is quite revealing. Though the program improved total class time spent on the essential components of reading, “Reading First did not have statistically significant impacts on student reading comprehension test scores in grades 1-3.”
No one doubts Northup’s dedication to children and improving their lives. I mean, she practices what she preaches and has gone so far as to spread her love through adoption– something every single one of you reading this should consider. But the report means that the program was so terrible that even with hugely increased classroom and study time, there was basically no impact at all on reading comprehension scores. You can read the full report by clicking here.
That’s all fine and dandy but it gets better. During a Northup for Congress campaign luncheon on September 5, 2002, George W. Bush called Reading First Anne Northup’s “biggest contribution.”
“But Anne’s biggest contribution– and I mean, a significant contribution– was to fight for and get funding for a Reading First initiative.”
Regardless of Dubya’s historic 71% disapproval rating, that’s gotta sting a bit. I mean, her “biggest contribution” turning out to be a massive failure all.
Was this her signature moment in Congress?
6 responses so far ↓
1 Yellow Dog // May 2, 2008 at 4:53 pm
Proof that even when repugs have the rare good intention, their fundamental hatred and distrust of government always - always - results in failure.
2 David Adams // May 2, 2008 at 4:55 pm
I went to a meeting of small-government Republicans recently and before we walked into the broom closet where the meeting was to be held we were talking about the good old days when the GOP wanted to shut down the Department of Education and keep the control local. Seems like a million years ago. Here in Kentucky we get enough waste, fraud, and abuse from the Kentucky Department of Education. Inviting the feds in to incentivize more dumbing down was certain to lead to stories like this.
3 Chad // May 2, 2008 at 7:22 pm
Look up any program like this and you’ll find positive and negative reviews. Finding what you want is called cherrypicking.
4 Bridget // May 3, 2008 at 11:50 am
The federal government has no business messing with elementary education. It just forces local schools to spend money trying to comply with unfunded mandates. The way to improve education is to allow good teachers to receive merit bonuses. But the unions will never allow it.
5 askquestions // May 3, 2008 at 2:32 pm
No child left behind - they should rename the thing and call it we don’t know what the hell we are doing or every child left behind. Crazy. My kids will never go to public school, the US doesn’t have a real desire to educate children. I can’t stand the idea of some loud mouth PTA attendees deciding which books to ban.
6 Steve Magruder (I, not D or R) // May 5, 2008 at 9:11 am
It always seems that Republicans, when they do set up government programs, design them to fail so as to teach a lesson that government programs always fail, even though that’s not the truth.
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