Marsden for Congress

We're shortchanging our kids.  America's future will be only as successful as our children are prepared to make it.  But our educational standards have fallen behind those of many other nations and America will suffer when our kids compete in the real world against those from better educational systems.   No Child Left Behind has been a failure and it's time to scrap it.  During the past six years of implementation, overall test scores have gone down remarkably and it's due to one simple reason: No Child Left Behind emphasizes the worst part of America's educational approach: to just fill children with facts so they can pass a test, and then promptly forget that data as more is programmed.   No Child Left Behind confuses test scores with actual education.  Our children are not taught to think, or to actually process information or to learn how to participate in the real world they'll soon inherit.  No Child Left Behind was a thinly-disguised attempt to force the failure of public education.  Unrealistic demands were made without providing either the path to be taken or the funds required to travel that journey.  I know first-hand the terrible battle many teachers and administrators face: not only have I myself taught school from the elementary grades to the University level, but my sister is a retired elementary school teacher.  To be a teacher in America today is to be devalued and largely unrecognized, but we must come to the realization that our teachers need all the help they can get because they have the responsibility of shaping our future but they’re not being given the tools or respect they deserve.  My wife and I have taken an active role in the education of our young son.  We’ve seen what has happened here in Mariposa and throughout California and while funding is a local/state issue, the tragedy is that we’re shortchanging our own children – and our nation’s future – because of an outdated approach to education.